The Surface of Things
Jaromir Funke:
Jaromir Funke was a leading figure in Czech photographer during the 1920s and 1930s. His work was recognised for his play with mirrors, lights, shadows and objects such as plates, bottles or glasses. With the use of mirrors and light reflecting these objects created unique photographs, some, very familiar to photograms. He turned simple objects into a work of art with just light and mirrors to create all types of abstract shapes through shadows. In Funke's work, he demonstrates how you can identify surfaces just with the use of light. You are able to identify the surface of any object due to the reflectiveness of it, what parts of the surface show the most light and how it shows that light is being shone onto it.
Like this photograph above, you are able to see that the light is coming in from the top left-hand corner. The light is reflecting off of the glass bottle, making it evident that the surface is shiny and reflective. Pieces of card are also placed next to the bottle and you can clearly see that they are non-reflective, matte objects as they are not reflecting the light back. The light also helps make evident of the fact that the glass bottle is transparent as the shadow behind is not solid, whereas you can see that the pieces of paper are opaque as the shadow is solid.
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You can see in this photo above that the light is being produced from the top of the photograph. You can see this through the reflection of the spoons. As the spoons are completely reflective, almost like a mirror, they reflect exactly where the light is coming from, and reflect the shadows too. You are able to identify the surface of this as lots of reflective surfaces are stainless steal, metal or glass.
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My interpretation of surfaces - Photoshoot:
This is my interpretation of how light is used to present the surfaces of different objects. These photos were taken around Thomas Tallis School and each photo is of a different surfaces. When taking the photographs I tried to make sure that the light was hitting the surface in a way that really showed what the surface it was and what condition it was under: whether it was dry or wet. This is the outcome. I wish I had used more direct light when taking the photographs as then, in one photograph, you would be able to see how light affects the surface and what parts of the surface pick up on it.
Disruption of Surfaces
With this photograph, I cut out circles of the image, all the same size, with a circle cutter. I then manipulated the surface by rotating the circles round so they did not look the same as before. I was really happy with the way this turned out as I think it really disrupted the surface and made the photo look a lot different with only small changes. If I were to do this experiment again, I would take various photographs of the circles in different rotated positions to show how it could look in different ways.
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The other experiment I decided to do with this photograph was disrupt the surface by moving the circles into different places instead of just rotating them. When moving the circles around, I tried to put the cropped image of the circle into a hole that had completely different surroundings in terms of colours and shapes. I am really happy with the way this photograph turned out as I decided to keep it this way without doing anymore experimenting to it, however, if I were to ever do this experiment again, I would cut out different sized holes and cut out different shapes.
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With this photograph, I manipulated the surface by cutting out key features and objects of other photographs and stuck them on to this photograph that had a plain type of background. The background picture was of a desert and I chose this because I wanted something quite plain and repetitive for other photos to go on. I chose to cut out the object of the sofa and the pile of goods because I thought it would work really well with the background photograph as they are a contrast to each other. I liked the way this photograph turned out however if I were to do it next time, I would definitely be more creative in the way that I present it.
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I manipulated the surface of this photograph by using ink and a roller to go over the surface showing just some part of the image. Before creating this manipulated photograph, I made two before, however they did not turn out well as I used too much ink and you couldn't see the actual photograph. I am happier with the way this one turned out as it still looks like the photograph but just manipulated slightly. If I were to do this again I would take a photograph of the photograph in a way that captured how I manipulated the surface in terms of being able to see the texture. This is because in real life, you are able to feel the ink on the photograph but you cannot see this through the photograph I have taken of it.
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With these photographs, I manipulated the surfaces by using bleach. I poured pure bleach onto the photographs and left it for a couple of seconds before washing it off under a tap. The bleach removed the colour from the photographs leaving where I had poured, to be plain white. I like these photographs as I like the abstractness of them and the fact that the surfaces have really been manipulated and almost destroyed. However, if I were to do this particular experiment again, I would wash the bleach off straight away after pouring it on as you can see in the top right-hand corner of the first image, that because the bleach was only on the photograph for less than a couple of seconds, the colours had stayed on there but had just been played with. I would have preferred if the whole photograph was like this.
Lastly, I manipulated the surface of this photograph by rolling ink onto it then pouring bleach over the top and using a pin to scrape at the surface. I decided to do this because I wanted to see how the bleach and ink worked together. I am really happy with the outcome of this photograph as I think the bleach and ink worked really well together. From experimenting with bleach before this photograph, I remembered that a better outcome would be caused by washing the bleach off straight away so that is what I did. The ink also added to the photograph as it caused an almost burnt effect.
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