After I took the photos of reflections in Las Vegas. I struggled to retake them in London . That was because the illusion work best with tinted windows, which there was loads in Vegas but there weren't many in London. So on a rainy day, I went down to Sutcliffe Park and I got photos of reflections.
How does these link to Dream City?
When I was looking at the work of Lee Friedlander, his photos felt like an opening. This image especially. It feels like the world has opened up to a new dimension. Also when I look at the image, I always ask myself is this a new dimension or just a reflection?.
I decided to take photos like this but with reflections in puddles. |
After I took this set, I took some more photos of puddle reflections. This time at Tallis.
Best PhotoOut of all the photos. This is my favourite the reason why this is my favourite image is because I've captured the school building.
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Least Favourite PhotoThe first reason why I don't like this image is because of the motion blur. This is because the image I rushed the image. I think I walked off at the same time as I took this image. So as a result there is a lot of camera shake/motion blur. Even though the image hasn't come out. I don't think this image would of worked because there wasn't really a colour contrast so it wouldn't of felt like an Opening. The reason for the lack of contrast is because the ground is a brown
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Saul Leiter
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Saul Leiter is an American photographer who is well known for his photos with abstract reflections and compositions.
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Andre Kertesz
7 and 8.
I really like images that create the illusion of our viewpoint. Because of the size of the shadows, we instantly think that that we are on the same level as if, we think we have taken a photo of there backs. However we see the floor and we realise we aren't looking at there backs, we are actually looking at their reflections. It makes it feel like Kertesz was trying to make some very simple seem abstract. Making the familiar feel unfamiliar. |
1.
This image gave me the idea of what to do next. Next I'm going to get photos of reflections of puddles and I'm going to try to leave a clue to what the reflection is. Like this image, where we can see the full statue and most the of the person. Whereas at the top of the image, we can see the mans legs and the base of the statue. I'm hoping to achieve this with people, cars and trees. 2. This photo doesn't include a clue to what is in the reflection, this is because the whole subject is in the puddle. 3. After looking at this image multiple times, I realised something odd with it. But like photo 1, we see a lot of the subject in the puddle and we see a small clue that isn't in the puddle. I think this was intended because we have a clear link between the object [the boat with legs] and the subject [the puddle] I also think this because the puddle is massive. So maybe Kertesz clearly wanted to show a link between the boat and the water. |
Shadows & Reflections
So I'm going to try to take photos that are similar to the work of Andre Kertesz. So I'm going to take photos of reflections in puddles and I'm going to try to capture the object of the reflection. So like the photos of the puddle with the boat. I'm going to have a part of the tree in the frame, because the tree is reflected in the puddle.
Photoshop Edit
Flipping the reflctions
After I had taken and edited enough images. I decided I should display them on my website in a different way. So I've decided to very simply flip the images. I decided this because in all the images, the reflection is at the bottom of the frame and the actual subject was at the top of the frame. So by making them upside down. They will feel more abstract. People will look at the photos and think what is the reflection.
When I was looking on the Reflections board on the Tallis Arts Pinterest. I saw this photo that was taken by Gavin Hammond. As you can see Hammond has taken a photo of a puddle and he flipped it. Because of the size of the puddle we instantly think we are looking at the real thing. Then we see we are actually looking at a reflection.
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Mirrored images
Response
After numerous experiments both photographically and with Photoshop. I believed I had a good response. Out of all the abstract puddles. The first photo in my opinion was the best. I really like the strong contrast between the black and white and the colour. I also liked the arrow which I only realised after I took the photo. in my opinion, it increased the illusion of an opening to a new dimension. It is like the arrow is saying turn this way into the new dimension. I was really impressed with the service of Photobox with my first Surrealism response, so I decided to use them again. I ordered it in 30" by 20" like the Rorschach response, however because the colour was so important. I decided to order it in glossy form. I felt the 4 main colours will look good when the paper is glossy.
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What went well
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Even better if
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Here is a video of how I made my abstract puddle response.
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