Tate Modern
The Radical Eye
At Tate Modern, we saw The Radical Eye, the modernist photography collection of Sir Elton John. This exhibition focused of photography in the first half of the 20th century, when there was innovation and new ideas emerging in art and particularly photography. This exhibition displayed modernist photography through different rooms, each focusing on a different types and subject matters. There was a number of photographers displayed in the exhibition that we have studied, particularly from the New Vision and New Objectivity movements. These photographers and the principles of these movements focused on rendering the world realistically, in sharp detail. In this period after the first world war, there was a lot of social change. This exhibition also featured radical and experimental works from this time, artists such as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (as featured at this exhibition) were experimenting with light, chemicals and paper particularly; he believed that 'photography could change not only what we see, but how we see'. Towards the end of the exhibition, there were rooms featuring new approaches and viewpoints in photography, with new viewpoints used to depict subjects, as well as new forms of abstraction. As well as this, there was focus on the growing genre of documentary photography, with new technology and portable cameras facilitating social commentary and documentary photography, particularly in the 1930s.
Overall, I enjoyed the Radical Eye exhibition and it broadened my knowledge of this period of photography, which we had previously studied. It was also good to see some original prints of influential works that I had studied; such as work from Paul Strand, Alfred Steiglitz, Robert Frank, Jaromir Funke, Man Ray, Dorthea Lange, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy etc.
Overall, I enjoyed the Radical Eye exhibition and it broadened my knowledge of this period of photography, which we had previously studied. It was also good to see some original prints of influential works that I had studied; such as work from Paul Strand, Alfred Steiglitz, Robert Frank, Jaromir Funke, Man Ray, Dorthea Lange, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy etc.
Threshold Concepts
Following the exhibition, I used a number of Threshold concept prompts when photographing in the Tate collection. I used the exercises below, and completed each by photographing and looking at pieces of art throughout the collection. I enjoyed using these prompts to photograph in the tate collection, and it was quite interesting to use these prompts for my own photography exercises.
Threshold Concept 1
This first threshold concept prompt was quite difficult, as it was difficult to find artworks that I could imitate/replicate myself. Eventually, I found this work and I imitated the old man in the painting by squinting similarly to him, and I took a photo of myself using my front facing camera on my phone. However, I don't think it works particularly well as it is difficult to see that I am imitating the small man in the painting.
Threshold Concept 2
For this threshold concept, I photographed two different threee dimensional art works. In the first piece, I particularly focused on how the hanging glass sculpture reflected light. In the photographs, I also included the coloured reflections on the wall, caused by the light passing through the glass sculpture. For the second piece of art, I photographed close-up compositions of a Barbara Hepworth sculpture; I focused on looking at how the light fell on different sections of the sculpture, and the different shapes and shadows created.
Threshold Concept 3
For this Threshold concept, I photographed different sections of this piece of art in the styles of the different people suggested on the threshold prompt. For the first composition (top centre) I photographed the piece in the style of a historian. I photographed the whole of the piece, face-on in a simple, straight forward style. I did this because I thought that a historian would want to accurately document the piece of art. For the second photograph (top left), I photographed a small section of the piece in the style of an abstract artist. I thought that an abstract artist would just include a small, abstracted section of this piece of art.
For the third photograph (bottom right) I photographed the artwork in the style of a commercial photographer. I thought that a commercial photographer would want to included the most interesting section of the piece, but crop out any background space, or uninteresting sections of the artwork. For the fourth image (middle bottom), I photographed in the style of a forensic scientist. I included a relatively small section of the art, but I particularly wanted to focus on the detail of the piece of art. As a forensic scientist, you could take a number of different photos looking at details, you could even use a macro lens to pick up tiny details on the surface of the artwork. For the last image, I photographed the artwork in the style of a tourist. I took this photograph quite casually, at a side angle. I thought that a tourist may just take a quick photo of the piece, and may not focus on good composition.
For the third photograph (bottom right) I photographed the artwork in the style of a commercial photographer. I thought that a commercial photographer would want to included the most interesting section of the piece, but crop out any background space, or uninteresting sections of the artwork. For the fourth image (middle bottom), I photographed in the style of a forensic scientist. I included a relatively small section of the art, but I particularly wanted to focus on the detail of the piece of art. As a forensic scientist, you could take a number of different photos looking at details, you could even use a macro lens to pick up tiny details on the surface of the artwork. For the last image, I photographed the artwork in the style of a tourist. I took this photograph quite casually, at a side angle. I thought that a tourist may just take a quick photo of the piece, and may not focus on good composition.
Threshold Concept 4
For this threshold concept, I photographed between artworks that I found interesting. However, I could edit a couple of these photographs to straighten them, as a few images are slightly skewed.
Threshold Concept 5
For this task, I found a piece that I was interested in. I quickly looked at this piece and noticed how my eye moved around the piece. I looked at the piece a couple of times, again focusing on how my eye moved around the canvas. After this, I tried photographing different sections of the canvas, replicating the different sections that my eye focused on.
Threshold Concept 7
In the collection, I found an artwork that I liked and photographed it for a period of 5-10 minuted. I sat on a bench and rested my camera on the flat surface. I set a slow shutter speed (around 3 seconds), as I wanted to give the impression of motion blur and movement (at this shutter speed, visitors moving around the gallery would be motion blurred). However, I had to brace the camera on the bench to stop and hand shake impacting on the photograph, as it was shot at such a slow shutter speed. I am quite pleased with the results, I like the effect of the blurred moving figures in the gallery at slow shutter speeds.
Threshold Concept 8
For this task, I focused on artworks that feautured orange tones. Initially I looked at finding different shapes that I could focus on, however, there were many more artworks feauturing particular colours that I could focus on. I could expand this gallery with a larger range of works feauturing orange tones
Threshold Concept 9
Instead of photographing though a postcard, I used a postcard of an abstract artwork to partically obsure the lens. I shot these photos with the coloured card quite close to the lens, so that it was quite blurred. I used the same card, as a recurring theme throughout the gallery. I made sure that the card was kept in the same place, so that it obscured half of each artwork in these pictures. I like the effect of some the the artworks that the card obscured, but it could frustrate the viewer as half of the artwork is covered.
Threshold Concept 10
For this threshold concept prompt, I looked for works that I found interesting. I photographed a number of works, and then I stood next to each artwork and photographed the returning view where I previously stood. I often waited for a person to walk past to add some more interest to the photo. I then paired the two frames side by side in photoshop to create a diptych. In photoshop, I increased the canvas size of each image on the left hand side by 200% (doubling the canvas size) and then posted the other image beside it, and lined it up; I then saved these images and Jpeg files.