Monday 21 May 2012

Essay Research







Stills from the film They Live 

Stills from the film They Live  
Stills from the film They Live  

Stills from the film They Live  

Stills from the film They Live  

Stills from the film They Live  

Stills from the film They Live  

Stills from the film They Live  

Stills from the film They Live  


Monday 26 March 2012

Waste Commission appraisal


Waste of life by eating 

I started by looking the uneven balance of consequences produced from fast food mainstream restaurants such as McDonalds, i.e. the land use in less developed countries for more developed countries to have a quick burger. To me this seemed to be wrong. Looking into this and then the numbers animals killed in a year (which was shown in tones not animals) gave me more thought to look into and realise that its the act of wanting and killing the animal which is the waste and the land use is the bi product. 

I chose to take shoot some images that would be challenging to look at by the viewer and not obvious what they are straight away. To do this i chose to take the crop of the image fairly close and confined. 

First Set of images 

First Set of images  

First Set of images  

First Set of images  

First Set of images  

I'm happy with these images especially  the eye and the lip curve, because there's a certain amount of confrontation with the viewer in the eye photo, the print and tone in the lip curve image adds a fetish in the flesh of the pig and isn't straight away clear what its of. 

I wanted to show more repetition in these images which i thought was missing, i wanted to highlight how meat has become a commodity and because its packaged in such a way, and dished out in such a way its lost its connection with where it comes from. 


Idea print two 



This was inspired loosely by Chris Jordan, however not on the scale, i think this is a very visually interesting way of showing repetition however was a pretty challenging method of print and was hard to get perfect, I also thought it lost a certain confrontation  with the viewer. 


Final Prints

Final Set

Final Set 

Final Set 

Final Set 



Again i wanted to place repetition in the image but without loosing the confrontation with viewer i believe ive achieved this with these sets, i want to, if placed in exhibition, print much larger or more on one sheet of paper. The repetition is a big deal i think for this body of work to get across both waste of life within eating meat and waste of meat that isn't used even when animal has been killed. 

Self Evaluation 

Im happy with the images i have come out this project with, i think my visual choice are appropriate for the context of the image, the black and white i believe adds a further distance to what the viewer may be looking at and the use high contrast lighting gives a depth and  sense of the dramatic and theatrical  to the image. 

I think ive managed this project pretty well and approached it from a different angle. After i took the images of the pigs head i want to go into an abituare or store house and get the photos with more repetition in the shot through the lens. However due to the health and safety red tape i couldn't enter these areas, something i need to hastle with them until i can get in. This is the one thing i really wanted and still want to do, as i used Francis Bacon in my research i thought in the abituare i would get very gritty, powerful images similar to the aesthetics of Bacon. Along side of the image by Guy Bourdin. 

Guy Bourdin chapeaux-choc


 

Francis Bacon 
Francis Bacon 


 The way i think i could have improved and moved on greatly would have been the shoot in the abituare as i think it would have more shock value and get across the references i needed to put across. Maybe the size and amount of prints on one print would better both larger and with more images on one sheet. 
I've been approached through a friend at Kingston Uni to put these in a pop up gallery exhibition so for that i may consider doing that, i think that is how the work will really generate interest and a desired response from the viewer.  
The most challenging aspect of my body of work would be the desision to put an end to an idea when it wouldnt work to the level i wanted. I chose to end it rather than waste more time on trying to get something good when i could do something better anyway and still keep the context i desired. 













The Commission



Task One: 3 images tackling 'waste'

My idea is to show the waste we're creating from the consumption of meat, to start with i'm looking at fast food chains.


After i jotted down ideas that where bouncing around I started to look at waste within food and our through away society. Looking at Damien Hirst for both his work with animals and his work commenting on this idea of over consumerism in our society.


Damien Hirst 


Damien Hirst Mother and Child Divided exhibition copy 2007 (original 1993)

The use of animals in Hirsts work carries with it a certain shock factor, which maybe something i might want to tap into for my waste photo set. Im think of working with meat or food as a stance on waste of food, look further into it and get some backbone stats to reinforce it.


Hirsts For The Love Of God the diamond studded skull has been given mixed reviews for example Robin Simon the editor or the British Art Journal said 'All of Hirsts works are stunts, but this one is just a more expensive stunt. Its vacuous nonsense.' 
Although to an extent i can agree with this statement because Hirst comes up with the concept and a degree the designs but leaves construction to a team of interns, maybe thats not important because the idea is the art in many ways. 
I read this work as a jab against consumerism as he's taken a human, natural thing the skull an icon of mortality and covered it flawless diamonds. 




Lady Gagas dress designed by Franc Fernendez 
Again looking at something that involves itself witht he shock factor by using meats.


FAO news room was a good source of information when looking for statistics on the affects of lives stock. On the website it said that 'Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing'. 

'Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes'. 


I found this image below on the Green peace website of a large area used for livestock photographed from above. I think this kind of shot is far more effective than it would be if it was taken from the ground as it shows the grosse amount cows that being farmed for food and how much land they are actually taking up. The united nations food and agriculture organisation have said that the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions than transport. It is also apparently a major source of water degradation so these might be other directions to take with the project as well as looking at the use of land.



This research provided by Marie put into writing and statistics what i want to show through out my project. 
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Recycling Ideas: 





Prints 









After coming across the billboards with the layer of torn paper, posters and advertisements i decided this would be an idea worth researching, broaden my directions for this project. Looking into recycling artist and photographers, i went to the Tate Britain which had work by John Stezaker on show. to see these face on was great, to see the detail on the paper and the worn edges of the older prints. This idea of reusing images informed a direction for another direction. 

John Stezacher 


John Stezacher 



The work of Julie Cockburn also sparked off idea for what could be done with recycling the images, to in a way deform them, take something old and bring it to a new image. Theses aren't done by printing but a much more craft style of working. 


Julie Cockburn

Julie Cockburn

My idea is to get hold of some old photos, not related to me some photos that once would have had some meaning to someone nut not are mearly suvanears or collector items. Take them rephotograph them and print them but with a distortion. This way i touch upon two points within waste, recycling because its the act of myself taking something that is arguably obsolete and forgotten about and re-giving it purpose and the second point by making a statement of our own wasting away if you will. The second point i want to do in the process of the print. 

During my foundation year i experimented with cameraless photography, to oddly enough a very similar project narrative.  So what i wanted to was print the images onto the paper, develop it as normal darkroom process but when it come to fixing it do it really quick, this way the image inst fully desensitised to light and therefore will continue to change. 


The results of a test and my previous work are below.


Work i'd done in foundation 2010-2011
Lincoln College of Art 

Experiment on paper 
I imagine the photo would be aestheticlt pleasing because in the middle of the page i will have a sharp print of the old photo, with all the folds and shows of time and age, but almost as an over layer have the pink, ox blood red and later metalic drip runs of the constantly changing photographic paper. 

Own reprint of old photo

Own reprint of old photo

Unfortuanatly i need to temporarily put a pin in this idea because to do this id need to use open chemical processing and even though ive done this proccessing meathod my whole time i've studied photography i need an induction to be able to do this. The technition, Collin, kindly offered to take one of the fixing rake out of the processing machine so i'll try that however i know the aesthetic wont be the same as the whole of the image will be covered in the same amount of fix so it might all change together. 

The experiment below is a sheet of black and white paper left to expose and bleach thrown on it, this could be an idea to keep in mind for if i have to still use the meathod of taking a fixing rack out. 

Experiment with bleach  and exposed paper




____________________________________________________________________________________


Back to the meat idea 'left the eyes in for you, should see you through the day' 

After going to the Tate Britain to see a Picasso exhibition,  i saw some works by Francis Bacon, this inspired me greatly! Some of his work are really hard to look at, gruesome and in a way painful. 

Francis Bacon 
Francis Bacon
Crucifixion 
Francis Bacon
Screaming Pope

 This gave me the inspiration to try and push the boat out with what i photograph. I wanted something shocking, repulsive and hard to look at or be confronted with. I wanted the ugly and the disgusting in the photo. In a way the ugly truth and the hidden truth to something many do and be a part of everyday yet when they're confronted with this its hard to be around.







Again, i touch upon this in a project in my foundation year. As a shock factor, in your face stunt, i and a friend left a pigs head in the center of the high street in Lincoln and recorded the recations of the people in the street. I decided this would be a good place to start as it got these reactions from it simply being there what if i push it by printing it in a way that would also generate this reaction or increase it.  











I booked a studio and picked a pigs head up from the butchers and using high contrast lighting and black and white film got some pretty strong images. The reason i wanted to take them with black and white and high contrast lighting to add a sense of the dramatic and take away from the flesh colour to challenge the viewers inital ideas of what they are looking at. 

Scan of prints 








My intentions now are to push this idea further, maybe get more things to photograph but keep this shock factor. And for it to keep with the waste theme as i've previously said have it apply to the idea of meat consumption and how we seem to prioritise this consumption over the well being or animals, nature, ourselves and the environment. The cutting down trees in the rain forest to supply people with a McDonalds burger, just doesn't seem right. 



I wanted to go to an Abattoir, after contacting the 'store house' in Canterbury they kindly directed me to another in Charing Kent after explaining to me that it wouldnt really happen in this one. 
I shot down idea before it got ground, i'll get in touch with the Charing Abattoir however to meet dead lines i'll carry on with the idea. 
As this is something that genuinely interests me i want to do this even if it is out of the course deadline. 










I want to now hint at the numbers, not represent the numbers but have more than one on one print. This way there's more images on a print and give the viewer an idea of repetition. 

I got this idea from both Warhol (mainly due to looking at him so much for the fashion constructed image project working along side this) and Fontcuberta. Fontcuberta uses many pictures undernieth one image to build upon that image. 
It looks like a very low resolution image however this is because of the many images in one image. 
Joan Fontcuberta 
I have two ideas for how to go about doing this - 

One Refrencing Warhol slightly more and one refrencing Fontcuberta slightly more.  



How to get the smaller block colour
 prints on the same prints 


This way is to have one Large black and white print and over that have smaller block colour prints. I want to do this by using a template try and do this. First i need to try and do a black and white print on colour paper. This turned out to be much harder than i originally thought. 

Yellow low
Magenta low 

Yellow High
Magenta Low 

Yellow High
Magenta High  
Yellow 120
Magenta 120 
Yellow 120
Magenta 100

Im getting close but not quite there, after this i did get some help from the technician Collin, he said try putting a colour film neg in front of the black and white this will help to colour correct and tone much easier. It was to late to try this at the same time as the earlier ones so i'll try again. 


First test of template, didnt expose well enough on the over lays
second test, one was out
exposure better 



final colour corection for black and white and test of exposure for over lay


Final attempt at this idea



I like this idea to show the repetition in the work, however it ate all my paper and not one came out perfect. Always had something wrong, one out of place or rough edges. I thought stop messing around with an idea that might not go anywhere and go onto the next idea. 


Final Prints

Final Prints 

Final Prints 

Final Prints