Disguise
Comme des Garçons by Sophie Delaporte
Annika Von Hausswolff
annegret soltau
Thomas Spieler
Asger Carlsen
Annika Von Hausswolff
annegret soltau
Thomas Spieler
Asger Carlsen
My starting point: Disguise
Out of the four options I chose disguise as a starting point for my own project. There are many ways to show disguise through photography especially with people. Disguise is open to interpretation as there are many ideas that could link back to this theme. I already have many ideas on a final outcome however I have broken these ideas down onto a popplet as it is a good way to display. I have also used pinterest as Tallis arts have already given us many images to do with diguise as a starting point for our own work and ideas.
Tallis arts pinterest
My own pinterest
When looking at the images from the pinterest I became particulary interesting in artists: Sophie Delaporte, Annika Von Hausswolff, Annegret Soltau and Thomas Spieler. I especially like the idea of something realistic -such as a face-being transformed into something unrealistic or defaced as you are in a way disguising your self from the world, which as a whole is an abstract concept that I would like to work with.
Popplet
Sophie Delaporte: Comme Des Garćons
Born and brought up in Paris, 1971, Sophie Delaporte is a french artist and photographer. She moved to London after finishing her course at the ENSLL (Ecole Nationale supérieure Louis Lumiére) she moved to London to London and began working in the english press. Shortly after she was commissioned by ID magazine (high fashion magazine) , which is then did a lot of work for. Since then, Sophie Delaporte has contributed her photographs to top fashio magazines such as Vogue Italia,Uomo Vogue, Vogue Nippon and Vogue Nippon.
"Sophie Delaporte is a French fashion photographer who is on permanently good terms with fantasy and a cheerfully offbeat approach. She has a distinctive sense of color, a fabulist's imagination, an edge of surrealism, and a knack for ambiguous narrative".- Vicki Goldberg In the series of photographs she has taken for Comme Des Garćon's she has used cut outs that look similar to the outfits being modelled. The figure is trying to fit in -like a puzzle- into the background. The figure is trying to hide themselves through both the clothes and background. These made me think of the artist Mattisse as he uses cut outs of paper to create his work.
I would like to keep this idea in mind as a starting point to the rest of my research as I am really intrigued in this concept of a figure being immeinto the background as if he/she is trying to run away. ExperimentsIn these experiments I have used a cut out of the figures face for the person to hold. This idea plays with the theme identity and therefore disguise. The idea behind it is that the person behind the white cut out is trying to conceal themselves with a false identity. Although this is a strong idea I would like to work with I don't feel like these experiments have been successful. I need to think more carefully about where I take the images as the window ledge behind the person distracts the viewer and makes the overall image less strong. In order to strengthen this idea and photograph I will take the next set of images with a white or plain background, also I will think more about the composition so that the figure is central in the image. Also I would like to experiment with colour in a similar way to how Sophie Delaporte took her images for Comme Des Garcons. However I would like like to experiment with colour after I have taken a set of images with white card so that I am definite with the idea and where the figure is standing etc.
One element of the image that has worked is the shadow. It builds depth to the image in a unique way as it adds to another layer of tone. Also, it adds to the meaning behind the image as we could question 'is another person behind the cut out?' Another way I could experiment with this idea is using cut outs of other significant features of the body, e.g hands. If I did this I could display the two images together and show how people try and hide under false identity (the blank cut outs) |
This are a collection of images he created for Comme Des Garćons
Other artistsWhen I was researching Sophie Delaportes work for Comme Des Garćons the artist Matisse came into mind. Although I had recently seen a large show of his work at the Tate Modern I did not like the way the work looked like it had been rushed. However some of his cut outs, which were more precise, had an empty feeling about them. When I say empty I mean there is a feeling of absence about it that makes his work so special, its like he has got all the components to make something real however he has taking some things out to make it less real, more interesting, and mysterious. For example these two cut outs.
Although these are not photographs, they still link to the idea as they are blank pieces of paper that have been cut and moulded into the shape of a womans body. I am going to take this idea to create cut outs of parts of the body e.g face, neck, arms, hands and use them to cover those parts.
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The point of these photos were for me to cut the figure out of these images. I took a variety of images as a starting point so I knew what angles would work best. Although they are my first set of photographs and I would cut them out anyway, I am not pleased with them. I have not taken enough time to consider what composition works best as I rushed these images. However they have given me a good idea on what I should do next and how I should take the photographs next. I have realised that the images work best when the figure is closer up as we get a more accurate outline of the figure. Also it makes it more surreal as figure could be something else so it makes us question.
Caleb Cole
Caleb Cole is another artist I am inspired by to create these images of cut out figures. My plan is to take a range of photographs of 3 figures standing with different stances. I want to start to take the images of more than one person in an environment there comftable with because this is how Caleb Cole take his images however after I have cut them out and experimented with more than one figure in the image I would like to do the same but only use one person, the reason for this is because I feel it would be more symbolic if there was only one cut out figure, however this means I will need to carefully consider the composition of the bodies.
Caleb Cole explores the idea of identity in his work which I find really interesting. He plays with the idea of identity in a similar way to how Sophie Delaporte does for her collection of images for Comme Des Garćons. The reason why they are similar is because both artists have removed the identity of the persons face however they have done this in different ways. For example in Sophie Delaportes images she has used different items of clothing to conceal certain parts of the body however Caleb Cole has completley removed the persons body so that we can only see an outline and a blank space of them. This can bring up ideas about death as there is this idea behind his work of the person not being there but still leaves a mark (the mark being the cut out) |
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Experiments
Step 1 Take the images
I have taken these images of two to three figures in each photo. Although I wanted them to act natural when I was taking the photos I still needed them to be standing in a position where I could easily see the outline of there body so that when it came to cutting them out it wouldn't look to confusing. I know this because with the experiments I had done previously, the outline of the bodys was not as clear which meant that when I came to cutting them out, the blank space didn't look like an outline of a body because there position was not obvious. Despite all of this I don't want my images to be forced or fake in any way, I needed a good balance.
Overall I am pleased with the images I have taken, because I have thought more carefully about the composition, I still think they are quite boring because the environment they are in. Although school is not a boring environment, unless I have a more interesting idea about why they are standing in school the over pieces could look dull. My plan is to select some of these images and cut the figures out in a similar way to how caleb cole has. After I have done this I would like to photograph people in other environments
Overall I am pleased with the images I have taken, because I have thought more carefully about the composition, I still think they are quite boring because the environment they are in. Although school is not a boring environment, unless I have a more interesting idea about why they are standing in school the over pieces could look dull. My plan is to select some of these images and cut the figures out in a similar way to how caleb cole has. After I have done this I would like to photograph people in other environments
STEP 2 Cut out photographs
I then cut out a few of the images I had taken. I chose to out four to keep my options open. Some of them are more successful than others due to the positioning of the figures for example in one of the photos a figure has their head down, this is obvious when we can see the whole photo however when small details are removed from the image the figure suddenly becomes less obvious so we start to question what the people are doing. This is the whole idea of these cuts outs. These cut outs are not designed to be the final piece, they are cut outs I will use to layer over something else. I thought a lot about how I could use these so I decided to firstly put them up against a window to see how the pattern would come through the stencil, overal I'm very pleased with the experiments.
These experiments came out suprisingly well and abstract, I love the way you are not totally sure what you are looking at because of the unusual shape of the cut outs however when looking deeper into this it becomes obvious they are human figures. By using human figures in my photographs the idea behind the piece could be if many. For me this piece is about reversing yourself so much you become part of your environment and that the people you socialise with, the place you play, the environment you live in becomes part of you.
All of the images I had taken had quite bad lighting which didn't reflect well on the photographs so I had to lighten them using iPhoto. This simple process changes the way we view the image, which shows how lighting has a major impact on the atmosphere of a photograph. Although lightening the image makes it brighter and happier I'm not sure if I like this and it makes the images less serious.
Overall some of these experiments were more successful than others for example some of the cuts outs don't look realistically like people which I like however the idea gets lost behind this if the viewer has no idea what its looking at. In order to develop this I need to take some more images of people and because I will just cut them out, the background in the image would not matter.
Here I have wiped all colour out of the equation. I have used a very simple, but effective black background. This completely distorts the image and makes it more compelling. These images are complete opposites of my first final piece. However, this could be a seen as a positive because they contrast with the last final piece which adds to the depth of meaning. Without the colour its hard to depict any emotion in the piece unlike in the other one where the greens and floral texture create atmosphere, without giving to much away. In these three pieces I feel like you are looking at something quite blank as the outlines of the figures are what makes the piece, it makes me think about human interaction and the people itself unlike what the people are representing as the black is whats representing them. This means there is no double meaning. The atmosphere has been wiped out of the image leaving it to be quite bland however there are number of ways I could experiment with this because I believe this idea can be developed into something stronger and more ineteresting.
I used popplet as a way to present the different ideas surrounding this one experiment. From here I will take some of these ideas and develope them and see which ones work. By displaying all these different possibilities and pathways I feel more confident in creating my next final piece. I am particularly interested in using linear drawings around the blacked out images, by doing this I could create an abstract link between the figures. I will start by doing these drawings over the images I already have, then I will move on to creating larger ones using shadows. When I look at the c
Personally, this is my most successful experiment so far. I'm confident about using this or something very similar for my second final piece. Although I am using the same set of images I used previously I still believe the figures come across clearly in these pieces which gives the piece clarity however I want to extend on this, and use different angles for my next set of images as the angles are all the same or very similar in these three pieces. This doesn't add to the depth of meaning, it makes the images feel flat and lifeless and just illustrative. I want my work to be more than illustrative, I want it to spark ideas and explore the idea of 'human contact' which is what my this work is all about.
I'm really pleased with the outcome of these images as I have thought carefully about the subject matter and composition. Having taken many images before, I knew what to change to create more successful images, I feel like I have matured as a photographer from doing this. I captured these photos in a different environment than the school, using different people. These images were suppose to reflect a relationship between a mother and son. I wanted them to be very natural but also emotive, I used different angles to try and accomplish this. It feels a shame to cut these images out however I do believe when I cut these out and follow a similar process to how I did the three black and white pieces with linear drawings, they will be more successful as the poses of the figures represent something more symbolic, they are representing a bonding, a relationship with has been captured through the eyes of someone else. The final piece however will be very different to these images as the facial expressions of the people will be blacked out. This is a really interesting concept as we will not know what the people are feeling, we can only form an opinion from the body shapes and gestures as they will be disguised under a black sheet, Now I am confident I will be using these images for my final piece, it was a hard decision deciding how many I will use and of what size. Because the pieces are quite dark and intense I they will be displayed smaller than A4. I want them to be delicate and precise and this will help that, also I will be using 5 of these pieces because I want them to reflect a real life relationship so by displaying more than 2 we get a better insight to these two people. However not much is revealed from these two figures I am using in my final pieces.
Whilst cutting these out to create my final pieces I started to think about my second final piece. I felt quite stuck as I had come so far with one idea, it would be hard to create something else as I felt like it would not live up to my first final piece. I wasn't sure whether to carry on using similar colours or shapes so I looked into the idea of shadows. My black and white cut outs remind me of shadows as they are blacked out similar to a shadow, so I started to experiment with shadows and light using a DSLR.
Here I have used photoshop to create a shadow like effect. Because the images I used had shadows in them it was hard to black out the image without getting the shadow in too however I decided just to just black out the face instead of the shadow too. This makes the image look quite messy however it also gives the image depth.
Alana Dee Haynes
Another way of disguising somebody would be to try and conceal or hid their face. One way of doing this would be draw on somebody.
New York based artist Alana Dee Haynes transforms photographs to illustrative pieces, Her work explore the idea of human form being overlapped with her own abstract, creative interpretation. Although at first glance they could be seen as childish doodles, when looking into her work we notice the significance of the powerful connection she makes between something so real such as a photograph, a person and something less real. Alana Dee Haynes studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology before beginning her collection of work, although fashion was a big influence she wanted her work to be relevant to her whole life, not just a small section however as her work progressed and her ideas began to develop she realised her photographs were relevant to fashion but they didn't just belong there. her work however is mostly used in fashion s it really embraces mixed media, something the fashion industry lean towards as a form of advertising allure. 'I really want my art to transcend into every medium' |
According to the artist herself she see's her work as very intimate, when being so close to photograph and overlapping it with personal ideas, the image changes as personal ideas are taking over the image. These ideas are conveyed through illustrations.
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This is my most favourite piece of Alana's as not only does it highlight the significance of the hands and the position of them but it changes your feelings towards the image. For example the photograph itself evokes quite serious feelings however because of the pinks and whites-which could be seen as more uplifting colours, the image isn't to dark, however by layering it with a dark pattern it feels as though the hands are being trapped and disguised by this layer of darkness. This also makes the image quite alarming as we don't quite know why the hands are so significant. We begin to ask questions such as 'why are his hands in that gesture at all?' 'what is he feeling' and 'why is he pulling that expression?'
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Experiments inspired by Alana Dee Haynes work
Display Strategies
I have chosen to use this as inspiration for when I display my final piece. Because my pieces are are quite small and rectangular I would like them to be in a line with a small gap in between as my four images are suppose to look like they are connected, therefore by displaying them in a line it shows the continuity and flow. Although I have only four images in comparison to this photographer who has several, I still want them to be displayed like this as they need to be shown together, in a straight line. If I were to display them in a square the images would not make sense because of the way they have been joined together with black lines.
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Evaluation
As soon as we were given the option to do disguise out of the range of themes I knew from the start that I wanted to pick this. I found that this theme was the most open ended, meaning there were so many different paths I could have taken to create a final piece/pieces. Because I had many ideas on this topic I found it hard to pick a starting point, however after some consideration using tools such as pinterest and popplet I chose one artist called Sophie Delaporte. By using tools such as pineterest I could visually represent my ideas which was easier than just writing them down. Also, I used popplet which was extremeley useful when I was stuck for inspiration as there were some points during this project where I felt removed of all interest and confidence. I think the reason for this was because I felt pressured for all my ideas to be unique and original which I later discovered was impossible as every single piece of art or photography has been created inspired by somebody else or something. I found this concept hard to get my head around so I watched a couple of ted talks on the subject of 'originality' and this really helped be to gain back my confidence and carry on with the project so I enjoyed it again as I believe you can tell if somebody has enjoyed creating something or not, I think it can be clear through their work.
So after completing some Sophie Delaporte experiments which I thought weren't very successful, I thought I was research a different artist using the previous ideas and experiments. Although the Sophie Delaporte's experiments visually weren't appealing to me, I thought the idea of concealing or covering parts of the body very interesting. I thought I could experiment with this idea further especially as I had already found another artist which would link nicely. I think the reason why the Delaporte experiments weren't successful were because I didn't set up the photographs properly. The setting was messy and the cuts outs were not correct. Although I could have extended this experimentation I decided not to as I was already focussed on the next idea before I had the time to go back and fix a few things which wouldn't make a difference to my next experiments anyway. By researching into Caleb Cole I become eager to experiment using a similar technique of his. Therefore I decided to take some images of figures in school grounds however these images also weren't successful as I didn't place the people properly in them, the figures weren't in line with the background for it to work, and the figures were in odd positions. Although I saw this as a failure, it was also a learning curve as I learnt from this and tried again and took a next set of images. This time I took careful consideration in the images and experimented with the people pulling different gestures and standing in different ways. I thought they were quite a strong set of images and felt bad that my next step was to cut them all out. However once I had cut them out I felt inspired to use this cut out in many different ways,
I started by using this cut out to hold against a window, The window was facing the garden so I got a lot of varied green texture in photograph which made the pieces quite surreal. I really enjoyed doing this experiment as I was not sure on the outcome and it was a suprise every time. I spent a while using this cut out in the same place as I thought this piece was have potential so eventually I decided I would use this is one of my final pieces however I knew that is wasn't the end as I still had many different ideas, using these cut outs. I thought the idea of using this cut out as a stencil was interesting as I could hold this cut out against practically anything and I would get a different outcome every time, so I did this. These experiments were therefore quite intriguing and drew attention to the subject matter of the piece, I began to ask questions like 'why have I cut out the person and not the background' and 'why can't I see the expression on the peoples faces' and 'what is the idea behind trying to disguise the figures in images'. During the time I was experimenting with these images, using a DSLR I turned the monochrome setting on which turned the image black and white. For me this was an instant success as I discovered how much better the image looked when it was just black and white. Removing the colour from the image drew attention to the symbolic aspects of the photograph for example the people. The fact that they were disguised into a black background, put more emphasis on the figured themselves and the connection between them. This was a crucial part in my journey to finding a second final piece so I used popplet to brainstorm ideas as I thought I could add some drawing onto the images to connect the figures together, as a way to symbolise the link between the people, like a story.
Inspired by artist Alana Dee Haynes I did some experiments after brainstorming some ideas. I then used these experiments further and carefully considered my different options until I came to the conclusion that I would take a new set of images and followed the similar process of cutting the photograph out, transferring them onto black paper, and using a fine liner I would link the images up together using a intricate and delicate pattern. I then had a final outcome which I was quite proud of as I loved the way the images were telling a story. They were symbolising a relationshiop between two people however the viewer was unable to see who these two people they are because of how they have been blacked out and disguised.
This was not the end. I become more excited about the project as it was starting to end however I knew I wanted to exeriment just a but more with the idea of concealing faces so that you could not see them at all. So I used the tool photoshop to black out some images of sloe ups of faces however this did not work properly as the outcome looked like it had been done digitively which did not appeal to me so I used a better method of using shadows. These photo's were then then for my third final piece. I thought that by creating two final pieces using a similar technique, I could really focus on the idea behind the use of pattern and darkness. I didn't want to use the pattern just for it to look 'pretty' or 'appealing' I used it show a link between the pieces, and in a way a iink between the people featured in the pieces. I imagined it as though the lines were containing bits of imformation that were linking the different people up to form an even bigger picture. This is the idea I wanted to put forward in my final pieces. They are more about social interaction than of anything else. However, I don't mind if other people who see my final pieces don't think this too as this is just the way I see it as.
Overall I this project has taught me many things technically however more importantly it has told me to be more confident in the work I present. It has taught me to be more persistent in my ideas in a way that I have never had to do before. Ive learnt how depict ideas from such an open ended theme but most of all I have found ways in which I work best, I have stuck to various ideas and created something that I can finally say I am proud of.
So after completing some Sophie Delaporte experiments which I thought weren't very successful, I thought I was research a different artist using the previous ideas and experiments. Although the Sophie Delaporte's experiments visually weren't appealing to me, I thought the idea of concealing or covering parts of the body very interesting. I thought I could experiment with this idea further especially as I had already found another artist which would link nicely. I think the reason why the Delaporte experiments weren't successful were because I didn't set up the photographs properly. The setting was messy and the cuts outs were not correct. Although I could have extended this experimentation I decided not to as I was already focussed on the next idea before I had the time to go back and fix a few things which wouldn't make a difference to my next experiments anyway. By researching into Caleb Cole I become eager to experiment using a similar technique of his. Therefore I decided to take some images of figures in school grounds however these images also weren't successful as I didn't place the people properly in them, the figures weren't in line with the background for it to work, and the figures were in odd positions. Although I saw this as a failure, it was also a learning curve as I learnt from this and tried again and took a next set of images. This time I took careful consideration in the images and experimented with the people pulling different gestures and standing in different ways. I thought they were quite a strong set of images and felt bad that my next step was to cut them all out. However once I had cut them out I felt inspired to use this cut out in many different ways,
I started by using this cut out to hold against a window, The window was facing the garden so I got a lot of varied green texture in photograph which made the pieces quite surreal. I really enjoyed doing this experiment as I was not sure on the outcome and it was a suprise every time. I spent a while using this cut out in the same place as I thought this piece was have potential so eventually I decided I would use this is one of my final pieces however I knew that is wasn't the end as I still had many different ideas, using these cut outs. I thought the idea of using this cut out as a stencil was interesting as I could hold this cut out against practically anything and I would get a different outcome every time, so I did this. These experiments were therefore quite intriguing and drew attention to the subject matter of the piece, I began to ask questions like 'why have I cut out the person and not the background' and 'why can't I see the expression on the peoples faces' and 'what is the idea behind trying to disguise the figures in images'. During the time I was experimenting with these images, using a DSLR I turned the monochrome setting on which turned the image black and white. For me this was an instant success as I discovered how much better the image looked when it was just black and white. Removing the colour from the image drew attention to the symbolic aspects of the photograph for example the people. The fact that they were disguised into a black background, put more emphasis on the figured themselves and the connection between them. This was a crucial part in my journey to finding a second final piece so I used popplet to brainstorm ideas as I thought I could add some drawing onto the images to connect the figures together, as a way to symbolise the link between the people, like a story.
Inspired by artist Alana Dee Haynes I did some experiments after brainstorming some ideas. I then used these experiments further and carefully considered my different options until I came to the conclusion that I would take a new set of images and followed the similar process of cutting the photograph out, transferring them onto black paper, and using a fine liner I would link the images up together using a intricate and delicate pattern. I then had a final outcome which I was quite proud of as I loved the way the images were telling a story. They were symbolising a relationshiop between two people however the viewer was unable to see who these two people they are because of how they have been blacked out and disguised.
This was not the end. I become more excited about the project as it was starting to end however I knew I wanted to exeriment just a but more with the idea of concealing faces so that you could not see them at all. So I used the tool photoshop to black out some images of sloe ups of faces however this did not work properly as the outcome looked like it had been done digitively which did not appeal to me so I used a better method of using shadows. These photo's were then then for my third final piece. I thought that by creating two final pieces using a similar technique, I could really focus on the idea behind the use of pattern and darkness. I didn't want to use the pattern just for it to look 'pretty' or 'appealing' I used it show a link between the pieces, and in a way a iink between the people featured in the pieces. I imagined it as though the lines were containing bits of imformation that were linking the different people up to form an even bigger picture. This is the idea I wanted to put forward in my final pieces. They are more about social interaction than of anything else. However, I don't mind if other people who see my final pieces don't think this too as this is just the way I see it as.
Overall I this project has taught me many things technically however more importantly it has told me to be more confident in the work I present. It has taught me to be more persistent in my ideas in a way that I have never had to do before. Ive learnt how depict ideas from such an open ended theme but most of all I have found ways in which I work best, I have stuck to various ideas and created something that I can finally say I am proud of.