Creating My Halloween Advert

Halloween is almost here so I thought a scary Halloween advert for Transylvania would work well. I started just by sketching out my initial ideas

What I  wanted was to incorporate the idea of visiting Transylvania for a Halloween tour - meet Vlad the impaler, stay in a scary castle etc.  

I started to look at other tourists' adverts to get a feel of how these adverts might look.  

This one was certainly surprising in how bad I thought it was! At the top 'vampire in Transylvania however no really scary images just a woman in traditional dress.  I am not convinced by this that I will meet Dracula at all - most disappointing!

 Source: Transylvania Live

This next one offered a tour from Bucharest to Budapest for Halloween but again - not very convincing I will not be parting with my money here! Scrolling down the sight it actually gets worst with just dates and itinery with nothing to really pull me in. 

Source: Gadventures

The last one from Intrepid Travel again bordered on the boring!  It says that it will be the spookiest Halloween ever but nothing really makes me think that is going to happen and it is £1200 of disappointment!

Source: Intrepid Travel

Well, it seems I definitely have a better idea of how to create a scary, terrifying and truly brilliant Halloween tourist poster here!

The Art Of Advertising: Photography Adverts (a misogynistic dream!)

As always at this time of year I write about advertising and it is important to recognise that there is a real art to creating adverts. As argued in The Independent (Glancey J. 26/07/1995) art and advertising are co-dependent as artists have reused, reappropriated and reimagined adverts with Andy Warhol's cans of soup to Richard Prince rephotographing the Malboro cowboys
 and claiming them as his own.  Art and advertising have a complicated relationship with copyright - owning ideas and concepts is difficult and often end up in court.  As explained here by 'Donn Zaretsky, a lawyer in New York who specializes in art law, is often approached by artists who perceive echoes of their own work in advertisements. “It does seem like advertising people are pushing the envelope on this,” he said. “They’re being more and more brazen in their borrowing. On the one hand, they should be mining the art world for inspiration, and you would expect them to be referencing works that people are familiar with. But more and more they seem to be getting into the territory of blatant rip-offs.' (Fineman M. 13/07/2008)

The importance of an advert is to grab the viewers attention in a second and that is why using familiar or well-known concepts works as it is already a part of people's consciousness however to create something new and really innovative is the holy grail of advertising, a brand that people will buy into and recognise globally such as Nike, Coke, Pepsi, M & Ms these are super successful in their branding, marketing and advertising. 

I, as always, love to look at photography adverts and I particularly like to remind myself that the misogeny is still rife throughout! Check out these adverts:

Ad Forum: If you have the usual thing in mind, now you have an option

In this Fujifilm advert the man gets to have it both ways, so to speak! with two versions of the instax 100 film.  

  

Bad Ads: Panasonic

Yet again - men get away with murder!  How interesting if I put on an advert that I was shooting my boyfirend I think teh outcry would be instant and I would be considered a murderous, man hating feminist however this is allowed all the time.  I am a feminist and I do not think it should be stated as an insult - just lately it seems to be getting a very bad name.  However when I look at these and other adverts like them there is still much inequality - in the western world we are comparitavely much better off as women however we should still stand up and remember that we are half the human race and where would they be without us!!!

References

Glancey J. (26/07/1995) Is advertising art? Art: THE CREAM OF BRITISH DESIGN & ADVERTISING Saatchi Gallery, London [Online] Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/is-advertising-art-1593252.html (Accessed 07/10/2019)

Fineman M. (13/07/2008) New York Times, The Image Is Familiar; the Pitch Isn’t [Online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/arts/design/13fine.html (Accessed 07/10/2019)

Whats in my bag? III: Final Work

This is my final individual sequential images.  As can be seen from this bag, it is not very expensive, I like smoking, my work badge is there so I use it for work.  There is a phone and some earphones that are not that well looked after!  Some stockings in a bag (always prepared for stocking emergency!) Lots of tissues - which suggests either that I have a cold or that I spill things often...There is a makeup bag as well which mostly contains tablets for every medical eventuality and there is a bag of coffee.  A ramshackle collection of goods that I do carry around with me constantly.  I wonder what I could do without often and why I need all this stuff which I clearly see as essential otherwise I wouldn't carry it with me every day.

In terms of the piece - I think if I had more time I would reshoot this well in colour so the items could be seen more clearly and I would have spent more time setting the image up, although I do quite like this top down composition.

I am looking forward to the next project - I am just getting warmed up!

Creating My Own Sequential Images: What's in my bag? III

What's in my bag? III

My own sequential images are based on an idea that has been used before by artists and photographers for projects.  This is What's in my bag? III as this is the third time I have completed this project however I wanted to do it again so I could dig out my previous two projects and compare my bag and any changes over the years!

What's in my bag was used by the artist Hans Peter-Feldman.  He paid women £400 to give him their bag and their contents to put in an exhibition

Daily Mail: Hans Peter Feldman Exhibition (2012)

Daily Mail: Hans Peter Feldman Exhibition (2012) 

Above is how the women's bags looked in the museum.  Feldman 'Through his lifelong dedication to collecting, Feldmann has called attention to the cultural material that surrounds us by gathering images and everyday objects from disparate sources into meticulous installations.' (Rawi M. 11/04/2012)  What is interesting about this exhibition is that there does still seem to be a taboo about women's bags and what is inside them.  The secret contents are revelatory as they tell you about the person, their lifestyle, what they like and do not like and this is what makes this project interesting.

So to begin my own project I took pictures of my own bag in sequence.  I used a Canon 700D and used ISO 400, F4.5 and auto white balance as the room I was taking these in has a mixture of natural and artificial light.  The white balance is still not quite right on these however I will make a decision whether to keep these in colour or to make them black and white for the final images.  There is a good range of shots so I think I will have a sequence that is revealing and will work well fro this project...

References

Rawi M. (11th April 2012) Daily Mail: Artist offers women £400 to reveal their handbag in a new exhibition [Online] Available from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2128216/Artist-offers-women-400-reveal-handbag-new-exhibition-Serpentine-Gallery.html (Accessed 01/10/19)

Sequential Images: Initial Research

In class we have been discussing sequential images and looking at photographers that have made these.  We began by looking at the original master of the sequential image Eadweard Muybridge

Animal Locomotion: Plate 293 (Nude Man Playing Cricket), 1887 Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge was a pioneer in photography who studies the motion of animals and humans. Between 1884 and 1887 he created the 'project “Animal Locomotion” between 1884 and 1887 for the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Each plate in the series shows the same subject in sequential phases of one action. Muybridge recorded varied forms of movement in a wide range of animals, mostly taken at Philadelphia zoo, from pigeons in flight to the subtleties of gait found in sloths, camels and capybaras. Muybridge also documented human subjects walking, running and descending staircases and engaging in boxing, fencing, weight lifting and wrestling.' (Huxley-Parlour 2019) 

Animal Locomotion: Plate 158 (Man Performing a High Jump), 1887 Eadweard Muybridge

These images were made using the collotype process.  Collotype comes from the Greek word 'kola' meaning 'glue'  as it uses a gelatin-based surface for the print and 'was invented by Alphonse-Louis Poitevin (French, 1819–1882) in 1855, with early application of the process demonstrated by F. Joubert in 1859.' (Stulik D.C. 2013. p4).  This process was used for large volume printing using a mechanical process prior to cheaper offset lithography.  These images of movement really were the first of their kind and allowed the study of movement through photography.

We also looked at Sam Taylor-Johnson (nee Wood) and her sequential images - these images show a more contempiorary sequence using contemporary techniques in this case color photography using Chromogenic dye coupler print in these images clearly the ropes and pulleys keeping the artist suspended have been removed (digitally or through manipulation of the negatives in the darkroom).

There is something joyful about these images - the idea of being suspending and escaping with teh use of just coloured balloons.  a fantasy that is a reality within the frame. 

 

Sam Taylor- Johnson, Escape Artist in Levis (2008)

References

Huxley Parlour (2019) Eadweard Muybridge, Animal Locomotion [Online] Available From; https://huxleyparlour.com/exhibitions/eadweard-muybridge/ (Accessed 01/10/19)

Stulik D.C. (2013) The Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes: Collotype [Online] Available from: https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/pdf/atlas_collotype.pdf Accessed 01/10/19

Welcome to the New Academic Year 2019-20!

Welcome to the new academic year! I am really looking forward to the work that you will all produce and also the work that I will create on the projects that we will be embarking upon.  To begin I would like to talk about someone who is inspiring to me in the field of photography and vegetarianism.
Linda McCartney (1941-1998) got her break into photography whilst working on Town and Country Magazine using an invitation to a Rolling Stones party she photographed them and took them back to the magazine who were very impressed by her 'candid, intimate and relaxed photographs of the Rolling Stones that they published her images' (lindamccartney.com)

Source: Linda McCartney: Self Portrait (1992)

Linda McCartney gained access to the centre of the music scene in the swinging sixties and her images were used by Rolling Stones Magazine.  She photographed Eric Clapton, The Beatles (and married Paul McCartney), The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa and many more..

Rolling Stone Magazine: Mick Jagger by Linda McCartney (1966)

McCartney's images were iconic in that they captured the stars relaxing, not posing.  These unguarded moments made for beautiful, natural shots that punctuated her work throughout her career.  There is a sensitivity to the work that really trys to capture the essence.

Rolling Stone Magazine: Simon & Garfunkel by Linda McCartney (1966)

Apar from her photography Linda McCartney Vegetarian food range is something I still use today however at the time it was quite revolutionary for me to buy vegetarian food in the supermarket - this was in 1991,  I had been vegetarian since 1983/4 and it really was the first vegetarian ready-made food that was easily accessible. McCartney was a pioneer but she did quietly and with grace and my admiration for her gentle work throughout her life is something to truly admire. 

Paul McCartney stated of her photographs;

'She would just see things. Many of her photos, it’s just that one click. You’ve got to recognise when a great photo is happening in front of you. And then you’ve got to snap it at exactly the right moment… And she did that so many times that it always impressed me.' (McCartney P. 28.09.19)


References

The Independent (28.09.19) Taschen: Linda McCartney's Polaroids [Online] Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography/linda-mccartney-polaroid-diaries-personal-photos-intimate-paul-family-a9119986.html (Accessed 30/09/19)

Linda McCartney.com [Online] Available from: https://www.lindamccartney.com Accessed 30/09/19)

Rolling Stone Magazine (24th April 2008) Linda McCartney's Photographs [Online] Available from:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/linda-mccartneys-photographs-38003/ (Accessed 30/09/19)

Army of Dolls: Reflection

 I have always been fascinated by the plasticity juxtaposed with the human qualities of dolls, therefore, this project was a chance to explore this a little more through digital art.  I would have liked to have explored this project in a more physical way actually using the dolls and creating sculptures and scenarios in a human world rather than a virtual one. What is often lacking now in society is that sense of human touch, all day long people are virtually connecting however physically they may never speak or touch anyone.  This new generation will have touched and physically played less than any other generation before them as they have known only this.  

My concern for this lack of materiality in everyday life demonstrates that I need to explore this area and find that physicality in my artwork.  

In terms of the success or failure of this work, I believe that in the time given it was fairly successful, some of the images could have been more finessed in places and I wished I had more time to make further pieces so I could have explored what really worked and what did not within these images.  As a concept, it worked well however it still could have been more interesting in terms of narrative and this may be something I will come back to in the future.   

Now, I am looking forward to my next adventure.....