How do photographs change with time to become a piece of social history?

Tim Walker's collection of wonderland/fairytale style images from his book 'Pictures', is a collection that I find truly astounding and breathtaking, the images portray such innocence and exuberance, his work is filled with youthful imagination and completely impossible non manipulated images, that i find truely inspirational and thought prevoking. Walker's interest in photography began while on work experience at Conde Nast Publications where he then also graduated from Exeter College, Devon, England in 1994, he then worked in London as a freelance photography assistant before moving to New York to work as assistant to photographer Richard Avedon. Tim’s photographs are reminiscent of an era of innocence and exuberance; youthful imagination and a uniquely British aesthetic. 

The above image is titled 'The Dress/Lamp Tree' - shot at Eglingham Hall, Northumberland, England in 2002, Walker quotes "There was a vintage clothes shop in Bath and they used to hang ball dresses from the ceiling because they were so big, in the winter the lights would glow through them" this appears to be what gave Walker the idea for this photograph. Janine Trott, the set designer, had to make corsets out of wire and stich tiny lops into each dress, twelve times, so that it hung like a lampshade. This took two days. Walker then had to hope for a still night at Eglingham so that it was perfectly calm, because if the dresses had moved they would of been like ghosts on the film.

This image even though it was only taken 9 years ago is already a piece of social history, this image as been published in many well known magazines such as Vogue, this image is also the reason why hundreds of people around the world have after viewing this image then decided to pick up a camera and experiment with more impossible, youthful, and imaginative imagery such as fashion photographer Lara Jade who is known for her beautifuly haunting an manipulated imagery.

novice to expert

From Novice to Expert.

There are 5 positions on the novice to expert scale. And they are as follows:

1.       Novice – this is when the artist/ designer has minimal knowledge, unable to produce satisfactory work without being closely supervised.

2.       Beginner – has some working knowledge, simple tasks are likely to be done to an acceptable standard, able to achieve some tasks without supervision.

3.       Competent – good working knowledge, able to do tasks to a good standard, able to do the majority of tasks using own judgement.

4.       Proficient – great depth of knowledge, fully acceptable standards of work and able to deal with complex situations, able to take all responsibility for own work.

5.       Expert – authoritative knowledge, excellent standard of work, able to go beyond exsisting standards of work very well and able to see a vision of what maybe possible.

If I was to rate myself at this current time on the novice to expert scale I would say I was competent, I feel I have a good working knowledge but strive to better myself. 

Overcoming mindset

Overcoming mind set.

It is easy for designers, artists and creators to work in the same way and become stuck in a reliable mind sets, repeating work that has previously been successful. This is a safe way of producing idea’s that are more than likely going to be successful but this comes with many negatives. Being in one continuous mind set maybe the safe option but it has a massive impact on idea’s and artists become restricted. Although you have a greater risk of an idea becoming unsuccessful, by breaking the rules you are opening your mind up to a whole new world of idea’s and excitement.

Habitual thinking leads to predictable results and in order to overcome a set of assumptions, method or notation you need to relax your habitual patterns. Christoph Niemann is a great example of someone who knows how to overcome mind sets when producing work. All of his ideas have completely different processes and methods and he has managed to produce some exciting and innovating pieces of art. 

Looking at Chritophs work has helped inspired me into finding a way to relax my habitual patterns and challenge mind sets. I do this by starting every piece of work from scratch and trying to come up with around 100 ideas that are all different. This helps gets me thinking outside the box and helps me free my mind giving myself the freedom to become playful. Once I have my idea’s I look at them and try a few out in greater depth they might become really unsuccessful but these errors are a learning curve and they help me become a greater photographer.

My work space.

The place and environment in which a designer works when producing ideas as creativity is more that just a design process, peoples surroundings help influence and inspire.

I try to experiment and be playful when thinking of new ideas and sometimes changing my atmosphere helps me relax my habitual patterns so when getting ideas I like the change my surroundings by going to different places and collect various things that inspire me. Once I have got some ideas and need to focus I use my work space.

When working on assignments my office space plays a very important role. This is a place where I need to be able to concentrate without any distractions. Its my “safe space” As you can see from the photograph although I have a lot of things that inspire me and are my personal interests I also try to keep my desk space clean so that I am focused and able to come up with fresh idea’s, this is a place where I put all my ideas into context be them good or bad.

 I have a large pin board that I have made into a collage of memories and inspirational things I have found, brought and collected. This helps reflect my interests, passions and personality. Living in halls can get rather noisy so to help keep distractions to a limit when working I put on some relaxing music so I am able to focus and look into my idea’s and develop them.

Testing your work

Testing your work:

The most successful ways to disseminate your work is through various plat forms such as galleries, websites, blogs, forums and publishing your work. They can help you gain feedback and reactions off your audience.

One of the easiest ways to disseminate your work would be through a website as this is a way were you can publicise your work whilst also giving the public the option to leave feedback on there opinions. A great example of an artists website would be Kate Moross.com

Katemoross – As you can see in the image above the layout of her website has be carefully thought out so that its easy for the viewer to see all the important information on her main page these being a short biorgraphy in which she has not gone into great detail about herself she has just put the main facts she has also added in this section links to her twitter, facebook, fickr and other social networking websites so people are able to get in contact. Also next to her about me section she has her blog and archives. Great Visual hierarchy is shown throughout the website i.e the 3 colourful buttons saying work, play, stop and underneath she has her logo and her contact details.

I feel that Kate’s website is one of the most well thought out I have seen in regards to promoting herself. It’s clear, alluring and she has managed to disseminate her work perfectly by using most if not all of the various platforms above.

How do illustrators amplify the meaning within a message

How do illustrators amplify the meaning within a message?

I am going to be comparing two interpretations on “Alice and wonderland” the movie version directed by Tim burton compared to the game “Alice” that was produced in 2000 by American McGee.

  Alice in wonderland is a 2010 adventure film based on the famous novel written in 1865. This is based on 19 year old Alice returning to the “underland” after being there when she was 5. The movie is based in a futuristic dream with all these unusual yet astonishing creatures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o-19MnWlUc

 The game “alice” is also based on the novel “alice’s adventures in wonderland “ and “through the looking-glass” only this game is a completely different interpretation, the game is set in a more old, cynical, scary and eerie scenery.  This version is based on a nightmare rather than the movie version where it is a dream. American McGee has managed to convey a darker and more sinister interpritation by using dark, ominous, gloomy colours, the characters are all evil creatures.

Story Development

Story Development -  Three Act Structure

Jean-Luc Godard - "Every movie needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order"

The three act structure is based on 3 criterions

Criterion one – Protagonist – this is the person or thing that stands in for the viewer this can be subtle but there is nearly always one there. Movies normally begin with a basic story to give us an understanding of what is the “norm” in the movie is also introduces the protagonist to help us establish our views. The protagonist is the person who makes a choice that leads us to the main action a prime example of this would be in the movie Avatar…

Jake Sully (the protagonist) was a paraplegic Marine. After finding out that his brother who was involved in an experiment in another world called Pandora but got killed in a robbery. He decides to take his place. In exchange for surgery sully needed to fix his legs he agreed to help gather intel for the military unit.  

Criterion two – Equilibrium – this is where there is balance, this doesn’t always mean it is good but it’s the normal state for the subject, in the middle of the movie this tends to get disturbed and starts a sequence of events, the crisis. In the chosen film this is where jake sully takes on an "avatar" identity and goes through a series of events in order to become part of the Na'vi tribe to get the intel the military are wanting but the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora

The third criterion is that the 'outer story' is usually accompanied by an 'inner story' in which the protagonist changes or grows emotionally, phycological story. This is sometime formed in some sort of romance or change of view on there outlook on life. This is the case in the movie avatar when Jake starts to make a strong bond with the native tribe and starts to fall in love with the beautiful Neytiri.

In the end the actor comes to rest, balance is restored but in a different situation. Its about getting things back to a sense of order By the end of the film the characters come to rest in a new, different state of equilibrium, Avatar is a prime example of this, after the war Jake gets changed and welcomed into the na’vi tribe as one of them.

Story Development - Character Design:

There is always a lot of thought that goes into designing features of a character the four main aspects being Protagonist, Antagonist, Dialogue and Stereotype. The character I have chosen to analyse is Jake Sully the main character in the movie Avatar.

The three main important features when designing characters:

Appearance

Action

Interaction

This is Jack sully in the beginning. He is human and in a wheel chair after being in the royal marines, after agreeing to take his brothers place to become an avatar everyone doubts him due to his lack of training, all he could think about was getting his legs back.

You see jack character change drastically in the movie as he learns the na’vi way of life and is in with the action to helps save there world, he become this heroic character who chooses to take the life of an avatar.