New Objectivity vs Pictorialism
The new objectivity was a fake-expressionist movement of German art that arosed during the 1920 in the aftermath of world war one by Otto Dix and George Grosz. It implied more practical engagement with the world; it is characterized by a realistic style. Where as, Pictorialism is the name given to an international style and aestetic movement that dominated most of the 19th and 20th century. It is basically how a artist manipulates a straight forward image so that it looks like it has been created not just captured.
The new objectivity was a fake-expressionist movement of German art that arosed during the 1920 in the aftermath of world war one by Otto Dix and George Grosz. It implied more practical engagement with the world; it is characterized by a realistic style. Where as, Pictorialism is the name given to an international style and aestetic movement that dominated most of the 19th and 20th century. It is basically how a artist manipulates a straight forward image so that it looks like it has been created not just captured.
Edward Weston
Edward Weston took a variaty of different pictures from people to vegetables to landscapes and the reason for his image is to focus on the surface and texture of items. He does this by zooming in so that every detail of the subject can be seen. This helps to show what different textures there are on different images for example, the bottom of the mushroom looks rough as there are many different strands. He also uses black and white images which makes a high contrast in the image; this helps to focus on the places he wants defined. The lighter areas show defined lines and this helps to show the texture. However, when it is dark the picture is blurred together and not much detail can be seen at all.
Jaromir Funke
Funke was born in Skute; he studied medicine, law, and philosophy at the Charles University in Prague and the University of Bratislava but did not graduate and instead turned to photography. Funke was recognized for his work with mirrors, lights, and insignificant objects, such as plates, bottles, or glasses, to create unique works; he also played with shadows creating abstract images that reminded people of photograms. Funke’s work would often feature the "dynamic diagonal" and his work was thought to be original, logical and expressive of nature. Funke work represents many styles and subjects. He uses composition to create shadows and these shadows shape the light as well as integrating the light to create amazing photographic opportunities. His photography is based on the shapes of different objects and the angles he places them at/ takes the photo at as this gives us a idea of the surfaces of objects and creates and more real effect. He uses close ups to look at different textures of objects.
Letha Wilson
Wilson claims that on there own her images are nothing special and are just simple photos that can be taken by anyone who goes on vacation and sees a pretty landscape or obscure rock. However, when subjected to physical processes, such as being cut, pleated or bisected her images become an abstract representation of the landscapes most visual and sensory effect. By cutting into images she created a more rugged and realistic effect of the landscape. Also by folding and pleating the images she makes a 3D effect of the leaves coming out on top of each other which is also a lot more realistic. Wilson gives a really good idea of surface as she makes physical changes because the images seems more real and by looking at the images the physical changes catch the eye. These make the audience want to view more of the work and also try to capture and change images like she does.
What do you understand by the term "The new objective" in photography?
The new objectivity was a fake-expressionist movement of German art that arosed during the 1920 in the aftermath of world war one by Otto Dix and George Grosz. It implied more practical engagement with the world; it is characterized by a realistic style. Many different methods were used such as photograms, photography and a mixture of graphic and design in order to mirror the reality of the everyday world and allow people to see the world through a camera lens.
The new objectivity was a fake-expressionist movement of German art that arosed during the 1920 in the aftermath of world war one by Otto Dix and George Grosz. It implied more practical engagement with the world; it is characterized by a realistic style. Many different methods were used such as photograms, photography and a mixture of graphic and design in order to mirror the reality of the everyday world and allow people to see the world through a camera lens.
How and why did photographers break away from the pictorialism of the pre-war period?
Pictorialism refers to an international style and aesthetic movement that occurred particularly between 1885 and 1915; it was a style of fine art photography in which the artist manipulates the image to make it artistic. This emerged when the growth of amateur photographers occurred due to the invention of easy-to-use equipment for example, the amateur hand held camera. Dedicated photographers believed that the point and shoot method undermined the artistic nature of photography.
Pictorialism refers to an international style and aesthetic movement that occurred particularly between 1885 and 1915; it was a style of fine art photography in which the artist manipulates the image to make it artistic. This emerged when the growth of amateur photographers occurred due to the invention of easy-to-use equipment for example, the amateur hand held camera. Dedicated photographers believed that the point and shoot method undermined the artistic nature of photography.
What impact did the First World War and the Russian Revolution have on photographers?
A lot of photographer wanted to get closer to the action and would often take pictures from the front line. However, women were not allowed the front line so the women who took pictures represent what it was generally like to be a human living in the time of a war and sometimes they gave a unique feminine perspective on war.
A lot of photographer wanted to get closer to the action and would often take pictures from the front line. However, women were not allowed the front line so the women who took pictures represent what it was generally like to be a human living in the time of a war and sometimes they gave a unique feminine perspective on war.
What was the influence of the invention of the Leica hand held camera?
The influence of the invention was the idea of changing photography and being able to view people as they really lived and not having to carry as much equipment around. Before this hand held camera people always needed a tripod and lights to take pictures which took away the effects of the real world and made pictures more dramatic. The Leica camera was made I'm 1913 and used standard camera 35mm film. This changed photography as images were way easier to take.
The influence of the invention was the idea of changing photography and being able to view people as they really lived and not having to carry as much equipment around. Before this hand held camera people always needed a tripod and lights to take pictures which took away the effects of the real world and made pictures more dramatic. The Leica camera was made I'm 1913 and used standard camera 35mm film. This changed photography as images were way easier to take.
Compare and Contrast
Pictorialism
- This photo is very soft which makes it look like a painting instead of a photography. - There the picture is full of nature with loads of shades of blue, green and brown. -The photo is blurry which makes it quite eerie. - There is pictures of architecture and structure. - The photo is manipulated. |
New Vision
- You can see shadows and objects are defined so it looks like a photograph. - There is a double exposed and the composition is harsh due to cropping - You can see the architecture of a industrial site. - The photo looks busy and dirty. Colours are very dull. |
Surface of things images:
In lesson we looked at pictures from some photographers in the 1920s and thought about words we could use to describe them, we then disrupted the images and made sentences out of what we thought the image represented. For example, on one of my images I folded so that the leaves would look like they were overlapping; this lead to me thinking the image looked more realistic. I then came up with the sentence "planet earth has many different layers that builds it up to look beautiful". I feel like this fit my picture very well as the folding created layers that you would normally see in plants and without layers everything would be thin and have less colour.
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I then created a view finder out of card; I used different strips to create arches so that I could take pictures at all different angles and get different results whilst using the same view finder. Once I had finished my view finder I deicided to take images and videos of it to see if I could change the way things are viewed. I decided that my first view finder wasn't really helping me to capture the surface of things because the focus was on the loops I made. There also was not many holes in my view finder and so not many objects could be seen through it; this made it hard to view objects surface as there was little space that light could get through. Using black card for my first view finder was not a very good idea as you could not see shadows meaning the images were not as interesting. The second view finder I made was simpler than the first as I only used a white piece of paper and just adapted it to be a view finder. The fact it was simpler did not make it worse as it had more shapes cut out of it which made it more efficient as a view finder.
First View Finder:
Second view finder:
Eileen Quinlan
Quinlan uses a physical set up and then shoots on a medium or large format camera. She does not like editing and prefers to have her image displayed as naturally as possible so the texture is shown better. She uses shards of mirrors, colours in-between this and ricochet textures to make the surface of objects stand out. Quinlan is a contemporary photographer who is bringing ideas from an older picture generation into newer generation. Quinlan's work that is in black and white has high contrast this means that some of the image is well defined and the other part is more blurred with less detail. For example, the 3rd image I have selected of hers shows surface and texture really well as the black on the white creates a coarse texture as you can see many individual circles on the white. This makes it seem like there are many holes and it is bumpy.
In class we looked at some work of Eileen Quinlan and tried to replicate it with acetate and various materials. The materials I used were: glue, ink and salt. On my first slide I applyed inks in different shapes such as dots or lines and then sprinkles salt over it. When I placed this into the enlarger the salt came out really defined and dissolved into a black colour within the ink. On my second slide I only used glue and ink. I applyed the glue first and then the ink on top which ended up spreading over the acetate even though I applied it in a zigzag. This came out with a variety of colours and shapes which made my slide look really interesting. It is similar to the work of Quinlan as she too used a physical set up with no editing. My first slide showed texture and surface of things the most as the salt made the image look rough just like Quinlan did in her black and white photos. However she did this with the light contrast and colours and I did it with salt.
Dark room expierements with the slides
The first couple of enlargements I made came out really dark and didn't have much contrast in them so I tried exposing the photographic paper for longer and then a shorter time but this didn't make too much difference. I then decided I needed to add a filter and this came out really well with a lot more detail on the photographic paper and also better contrast of colour.