Introducton:
"The photograph, for all its promised immortality, always hinted at death" - Roland Barthes
Is photography truly the only art-form to be able to give people immortality?
Life around us is always disappearing, dying to make way for new life. Over millennia we humans have learnt so much more on the subject of death. We understand that death is the very end of our lives and in this fact alone, we search for a higher purpose to give our lives meaning. Whether or not you believe in God, or any faith at all, it is clear that many people cling to religion over the fear of death, wanting to believe that there is something after death. I believe that while there is an afterlife (whatever it may be), photography is the only way to immortalize one’s physicality and personality. When people pass away, our memories of them slowly fade away, leaving only faint key memories. I know this all too well, as my grandmother passes away over 4 years ago. I often struggle to remember the structure of her face, her posture, the way she walked and her voice. However whenever I look through my old photos of her taken on my phone, memories of her come back. I suddenly remember her clearly. This is just one of the reasons I strongly believe photography is superior to any art form. They show people exactly as they were on the day the picture was taken, bringing back memories of them, even if they haven't passed on.
Is photography truly the only art-form to be able to give people immortality?
Life around us is always disappearing, dying to make way for new life. Over millennia we humans have learnt so much more on the subject of death. We understand that death is the very end of our lives and in this fact alone, we search for a higher purpose to give our lives meaning. Whether or not you believe in God, or any faith at all, it is clear that many people cling to religion over the fear of death, wanting to believe that there is something after death. I believe that while there is an afterlife (whatever it may be), photography is the only way to immortalize one’s physicality and personality. When people pass away, our memories of them slowly fade away, leaving only faint key memories. I know this all too well, as my grandmother passes away over 4 years ago. I often struggle to remember the structure of her face, her posture, the way she walked and her voice. However whenever I look through my old photos of her taken on my phone, memories of her come back. I suddenly remember her clearly. This is just one of the reasons I strongly believe photography is superior to any art form. They show people exactly as they were on the day the picture was taken, bringing back memories of them, even if they haven't passed on.
When pondering on the topic of remembrance and mortality I came across the title: "Is photography truly the only art form to be able to give people immortality?". This title argues that photography can immortalize people, and is the only art form to be able to do so. Everything that exists will eventually wither and die through the course of time, most notably people. While faces can be drawn and painted to the most minute detail, they will never be completely accurate. Only through the medium of photography, through photos, that a person can be kept 'alive' long after their death. Their faces will never fade away, as long as they are photographed, being able to be viewed for all eternity. In this way they will never truly die, their life and actions being able to be captured through photography. I intend to research this topic/viewpoint to understand its use within art/photography, see if there are any counterpoints and ultimately explain the importance of photography and its use throughout the past 196 years. I want to set out and successfully explain the purpose of photography, its uses over the years, and how it can preserve a person, yet also be used to mislead the viewer and prove most notably that the viewer is shown only what the photographer wants them to see.
The very art of photography is often undermined and looked down upon. As we grew more technologically advanced, we became so overly used to seeing photography. We see pictures being taken every day all around us that we have become numb to the wonders of photography. Many people underestimate the power of a picture, claiming it is easy to take one; even more so that anyone can. While it may be true that anyone can take a photo, it takes skill, time and effort to create a successful image. |
Photography helps us understand more about ourselves, humanity’s self-obsessed, narcissistic desires to outlive their very selves, spanning out longer than time itself. Deaths inevitability creates a desire to be remembered, something that photos can do perfectly, capturing our very essence and locking it into a single moment in time. This is a concept that's soothing to people. People are scared of ageing because they know they are only getting closer to their deaths. You start dying from the second you are born and in this knowledge, people want to make the most of their lives, to not waste a second. Old age only reminds people of all the time they have wasted. It’s truly a depressing chain of thought, yet one everyone goes through. To make sense of their lives, to show to their selves and the very fabric of our existence, that their life is not some cosmic joke, that long after they are worm food, they will be remembered. That's the truth of a single photo, the very importance of it all.
If photography can immortalise a person then it must be understood what immortality is. Immortality is defined as "the ability to live forever" or "the quality of deserving to be remembered for a long time; timelessness" (From Google's Oxford languages). The way a person perceives immortality shows their character and outlook on life. How does one desire to be immortalised? Is having a photo taken of you enough to give you immortality. You may live on forever this way but do you deserve true immortality. Perhaps one isn't immortalised so simply but should become eternal for the actions they take and the life they live. Pictures must have a deeper meaning to them beyond a simple selfie or portraiture image. They must show people living their lives, spending time with family and friends, and doing hobbies so they may be shown as the people they were. Maybe we have focused so much on immortality that we have forgotten why we want to be remembered. What good is eternal life if you are only presented by the way you look, and your actions in life?
If photography can immortalise a person then it must be understood what immortality is. Immortality is defined as "the ability to live forever" or "the quality of deserving to be remembered for a long time; timelessness" (From Google's Oxford languages). The way a person perceives immortality shows their character and outlook on life. How does one desire to be immortalised? Is having a photo taken of you enough to give you immortality. You may live on forever this way but do you deserve true immortality. Perhaps one isn't immortalised so simply but should become eternal for the actions they take and the life they live. Pictures must have a deeper meaning to them beyond a simple selfie or portraiture image. They must show people living their lives, spending time with family and friends, and doing hobbies so they may be shown as the people they were. Maybe we have focused so much on immortality that we have forgotten why we want to be remembered. What good is eternal life if you are only presented by the way you look, and your actions in life?
Documentary:
Life is but a documentary, being filmed by those creative enough to capture its beauty. Life will never end as long as it has been photographed. Our phones help us document our everyday lives, our experiences and the sights we see. We can share our lives with millions of people, a documentary of our lives. Our very essence is held within photos, immortalised forever, every image shows us growing older, and learning from our past, yet the pictures themselves never age. Through these documented pictures we can understand how life differs around the world. Our lives contrast those of different living conditions. War and famine plague the earth, causing death and total antihalation for little to no reason. All the lives lost in these scenarios would have gone to waste if it were not for war photographers such as Don McCullin. Those who have died have been immortalised thanks to his photojournalism. McCullin's work has helped many understand their fortune. The faces of the fallen are no longer lost to a sea of endless corpses, they can be remembered as individuals, rather than statistics. In a short statement made by McCullin, he claimed: "I'm not an artist" - "I've been struggling against that word all my life,"- "The American photographers all want to be called artists. I'm a photographer and I stand by it". I believe this is McCullin’s understanding that while what he does seems like art, it is nothing more than a documentation of life, death and war. An artist fascinates. A photographer informs. McCullin embraces this concept and displays it successfully.
A photograph’s capability to immortalise goes beyond people and animals, but buildings, structures and concepts that surround the images such as politics. McCullin's work helps preserve the background information and surroundings. It’s clear in many of his pictures that there is war and famine. One such picture of his, taken in Biafra shows malnourished children, one standing out from the others due to having albinism. The child looks dazed and grotesque, their skin tightly wrapped around their bones. It’s an image that draws out sympathy and horror, trying to spread awareness. The children may very well be dead or alive, but whatever the case they will be remembered and their suffering will not go unnoticed. Photography is the only way we can understand and view each horror, every war and every inspirational moment that occurs from time to time. Every building that has been brought to ruin, worn down by time and humanity can be restored to glory in our minds and memories. All it takes is the few who can document every important moment so that we may learn from humanity’s mistakes.
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To Die Twice:
A photograph seems like a way of preserving yourself, infinitely extending the length of how long you will be remembered, therefore gifting immortality. You cannot be forgotten if there is actual proof you ever lived. Anything put onto the internet will stay up there forever. Images, files and videos all document your life. However other factors must be brought in, such as the number of people on the internet. Every single person has uploaded messages, videos and other media. People can create multiple accounts and have multiple devices. The world is only getting more and more populated. The world increases its population by 221,102 every day. 59.5% or 4.66 billion people use the internet worldwide. As more media is uploaded, all of your pictures and videos and pushed further back along with older pictures, all to make space for newer media. Trends are always changing fast and your moment of fame could be short. Slowly but surely the chances of finding your pictures, and your way of immortality decrease. What this all means is that you will still be forgotten, and wiped from all memory, but somehow, there's a small chance at least one person may glance at your images. For brief moments you'll be alive once again.
Jiang Zhi is an artist whose work metaphorically links to this premise. Their work displays flowers which have been set on fire. The flowers burn passionately, still appearing beautiful, yet have signs and hint that they are succumbing to the flames. As the viewer, we know that the flower was obviously burnt and has therefore died. Yet the image shows it burning. Its life fleeting all frozen in time. Moments before its death captured perfectly, the flower is stuck in an endless limbo. On the very edge of death, yet still living. The physical flower may have died long ago but its picture, the only proof it ever existed only shows its death lives on. The flower’s death is inevitable, having already died, yet still living in its death.
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Jiang Zhi's "Love letters" and the truth of internet images both point in the direction that perhaps photography does not completely make a being immortal. Even if it did, it is not complete immortality. The person, plant or building’s value is not captured. In some ways, the real value of a person cannot be captured within photography. Real emotions, conscience, ethics and relationship with others isn't shown. From a photo alone, you cannot truly understand what emotion someone is feeling. We are unable to know if they were loved, hated or feared by their family and friends. When taking a photo you aren't preserving a person, but rather their appearance. The way they sound, think and feel is missing. It could be argued that photography only captures an empty shell of a person.
Deception and False Narrative :
A photograph’s value lies in its truthfulness, its ability to teach us about the past and remind us of the people that once lived. What we see, is what we believe, not doubting anything we read or look at. Someone can only be immortalised if they are depicted as their true selves. Shown plainly as the ordinary people they are. Therefore if a person was to tamper with the images taken, it would remove all authenticity of the person. They are no longer immortal as they have been replaced with fake media. Once this fact is known, how can we truly trust anything we see. Editing and splicing have been used over the past century to control what the viewer sees in a picture. The photographer can tweak their pictures to deceive the viewer and make them see what they want the viewer to see. This has been used in propaganda, art and politics, the power of deception abused by those who control all. Joseph Stalin was a powerful figure who used editing to remove all his political enemies. Everyone he deemed a threat, would be removed in real life, and all traces of them in media. Pictures of Stalin with other soldiers and politicians were all altered to his liking. The truth is a dangerous weapon, and when twisted, can destroy all validity, ruining the purpose of photography, to teach and inform.
Izima Kaoru is a photographer who asks actresses and models to imagine what their death would look like. His work depicts models in various locations appearing dead. Photography is supposed to capture a person, showing them in life, but what if all that is left behind them are pictures of them appearing dead. The picture is truthful as it is still showing a living person, however, the narrative being communicated tells a different story. This but another example of the use of deception within photography. Rather than showing the person in life, it presents the person in a fabricated scenario, twisting the truth to draw different emotions from the viewer.
Izima Kaoru is a photographer who asks actresses and models to imagine what their death would look like. His work depicts models in various locations appearing dead. Photography is supposed to capture a person, showing them in life, but what if all that is left behind them are pictures of them appearing dead. The picture is truthful as it is still showing a living person, however, the narrative being communicated tells a different story. This but another example of the use of deception within photography. Rather than showing the person in life, it presents the person in a fabricated scenario, twisting the truth to draw different emotions from the viewer.
In some ways, the artworks could be considered to be Memento Mori's. Memento mori is Latin for "remember that you must die", a symbolic presence of death in various art and literature. For all the eternal life that a picture promises, Izima’s work does the opposite. Whether intentional or not, his work reminds us that death is inevitable, no matter what. Even if you have your photograph taken are you still alive? As argued many a time, can a photograph capture emotion? The person’s body and physique may be displayed, but their soul is gone, all that makes us more than flesh and bone is gone once we die. It no longer matters if we have videos, pictures, sculptures or self-portraits.
Perhaps no art form can make a person live forever, no matter how detailed the image, painting and so on. If a person’s soul is what makes them alive, then it could be said that only the physical form of a person can be immortalised, nothing more than a corpse in a photo that brings back memories. If the photos are nothing but lies, a fake death to be presented after their actual death, then what validity does a picture have, if every picture has a fundamental lie within them. The person in the picture is now dead. In theory, photography will only be true while the person in them is still alive. My work below is a sample of Izima’s idea and concept. I turn a beautiful corpse ugly and through this method, I lie more convincingly to the viewer. The whole point of the artwork I made was to show the brutality of death. However, all my work shows is that no matter how you die, beautiful or disfigured, there will be eternal life for your body once you are gone. The false narrative shown here with the model dead has achieved immortality as a corpse. If no one knows that this body isn't real, then what's to say a person can’t mourn over a fake corpse. We see this done in many media such as films and books, where a character dies (a fictional one) yet people may still be sad and feel pity.
Having pondered these questions on our mortality, explaining and understanding how we use a photograph and the power it has, have I discovered a true answer to the question of photography's ability to immortalise a person? My answer may be different to someone else's answer. So I say again: Is photography truly the only art-form able to give people immortality? There are many factors contributing to yes and no. It’s often hard to create realistic oil paintings or sketches of a person and their face. The work created may appear to look similar to the person being depicted, but often are not perfect. Only a photograph can truly capture a person. Their small facial features, details that dare drawn or painted or any form of non-photographic art forms simply cannot capture. Pores, wrinkles, a smile, a frown, the intense complexity of an eye. It’s simply not possible without a camera. Photography triumphs over every art form in this case. The detail and precision make photography the clear victor, being able to make copies of the reality that we live in. So surely photography is the only art able to immortalise a person? To some degree this is true. When it comes to detail and capturing, photography wins. However, they are not immortalised, but rather their body. A person is so much more than just a physical body, flesh and blood. A person is a spirit, the soul that resides within them, the actions they do, the decisions they make. A photograph can only capture the body, but not the soul. Everything that makes that person them is missing from the pictures. Once everyone alive who knew the photographed person dies, the image is just a face without a name, lost to time. Humans are so afraid to die that we need to live on even after death. But death is an unstoppable force that will take all and so from ashes to ashes, from dust to dust we return to nothingness.
Perhaps we as humans think about life and death too straightforward, and we should understand that anything can die, fictional or not. No matter if an image is not truthful or not, anyone and anything, item or concept should be able to be given immortality. This is why I have decided, through the use of every photographer and example, that photography is far superior to all art forms, as it isn't art at all. It’s something beyond, a collection of images containing a person’s looks, hobbies, life and all proof they ever existed. But it’s simply not enough. No art form can immortalise a person. Nothing can immortalise a person. In our pursuit of immortality, we waste the time that matters; the time we are alive. So my answer may be different to someone else's, but to me, this pursuit to find the answer to my question has made me realise that I must cherish the relatively short time I have on this earth.
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"Every time the long-forgotten people of the past are remembered, they are born again"
-Mehmet Murat Ildan
-Mehmet Murat Ildan
Bibliography:
-Definition of Immortality : https://www.google.com/search? q=immortality+meaning&oq=immortality+meaning&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512l9.5944j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
-Martin Luther King image sampled from : https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/martin-luther-king-jr
-Stephen Hawking image sampled from : https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/stephen-hawking-death-obituary/555569/
-Quote by Don McCullin: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/arts/design/don-mccullin-tate-britain.html
-Don McCullin Biafra image sampled from: https://donmccullin.com/don-mccullin/
-Population increase fact: https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/toxic-exposures/polluted-bodies/how-many-babies-are-born-a-day/story + https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/deaths-per-day
-Internet use fact: https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
-Jiang Zhi image sampled from: http://photography-now.com/artist/jiang-zhi
-Stalin propaganda information: https://www.history.com/news/josef-stalin-great-purge-photo-retouching
-Memento Mori: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori
-Izima Picture sampled from: https://www.lempertz.com/en/catalogues/artist-index/detail/kaoru-izima.html
-Mehmet quote: https://www.quoteslyfe.com/category/photography-memory-immortality-quotes
-Martin Luther King image sampled from : https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/martin-luther-king-jr
-Stephen Hawking image sampled from : https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/stephen-hawking-death-obituary/555569/
-Quote by Don McCullin: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/arts/design/don-mccullin-tate-britain.html
-Don McCullin Biafra image sampled from: https://donmccullin.com/don-mccullin/
-Population increase fact: https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/toxic-exposures/polluted-bodies/how-many-babies-are-born-a-day/story + https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/deaths-per-day
-Internet use fact: https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
-Jiang Zhi image sampled from: http://photography-now.com/artist/jiang-zhi
-Stalin propaganda information: https://www.history.com/news/josef-stalin-great-purge-photo-retouching
-Memento Mori: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori
-Izima Picture sampled from: https://www.lempertz.com/en/catalogues/artist-index/detail/kaoru-izima.html
-Mehmet quote: https://www.quoteslyfe.com/category/photography-memory-immortality-quotes
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Lee Friedlander, Jiang Zhi, Don Mccullen, Cao Fei, Izima Kaoru, Roxanne Worthington, Irving Penn, Alan Cohen, Ryuta Iida, Pelle Cass, Idris Khan, Jan Groover, Sabato Visconti
I believe that Lee Friedlander is the artist the conforms to my title and theme the most, as he took pictures of reflections of himself in urban landscapes. Out of every artist I have done so far he suits my argument most. His artworks are truthfull and show a 'real' person, the way they were.
I believe that Sabato Visconti is the artist that doesn't relate to and goes against my argument the most. He took pictures of models and corrupted them, editing them, creating a false truth shown by him. The truth shown and presented is determined by what he wants the viewer to see, changing the model to become his envisioned art.
Lee Friedlander, Jiang Zhi, Don Mccullen, Cao Fei, Izima Kaoru, Roxanne Worthington, Irving Penn, Alan Cohen, Ryuta Iida, Pelle Cass, Idris Khan, Jan Groover, Sabato Visconti
I believe that Lee Friedlander is the artist the conforms to my title and theme the most, as he took pictures of reflections of himself in urban landscapes. Out of every artist I have done so far he suits my argument most. His artworks are truthfull and show a 'real' person, the way they were.
I believe that Sabato Visconti is the artist that doesn't relate to and goes against my argument the most. He took pictures of models and corrupted them, editing them, creating a false truth shown by him. The truth shown and presented is determined by what he wants the viewer to see, changing the model to become his envisioned art.
Photographer in the frame - Friedlander
Cusp of death/ Death delayed/ To die twice - Jiang Zhi
Documentary - Don Mccullen
The edit - Visconti and Pelle Cass
False Narrative - Izima Kaoru
Cusp of death/ Death delayed/ To die twice - Jiang Zhi
Documentary - Don Mccullen
The edit - Visconti and Pelle Cass
False Narrative - Izima Kaoru
Lee Friedlander, Jiang Zhi, Don Mccullen, Izima Kaoru, Pelle Cass, Sabato visconti
-Documentary
-Preservation
-Narrative
-Edit
-Preservation
-Narrative
-Edit
-Mesmerizing
-Neon
-Intimate
-Eerie
-Grey-scale
-Contrast
-Linear
-Thoughtful
-Defined
-Picturesque
-Ordinary
-Inverted
-Ghostly
-Bold
-Subtle
-Illusion
-Deception
-Spliced
-Simple
-Modified/Modification
-Constructed
-Reflected
-Subtle
-Peaceful
-Morbid
My overall word is Life/Death
A seemingly common theme that runs through my pieces is the concept of life and death. One is meaningless without the other, surrounding our lives, shaping the very way we live. I have chosen this theme to explore my surroundings everywhere searching for decay, along with life to come and replace it, a perfect, natural cycle. My previous work and artists Ive analysed have all linked to my theme in one way or another. The artworks incorporate Man-made items crumbling, fruit and plants decaying and drying, other plants thriving, humans dying, always aging yet still living within artworks. In many ways everything to ever exist links to my theme since all has been created and everything will die away.
Life - Death
Life - Decomposing
Life - End
Life - Emptiness
Life - Absence
Example questions/titles:
- If our life is given meaning through death, then how does art have any significance in the absence of an end?
- How is life's absence and inevitable end portrayed in art?
- Is the only way to truly immortalise people in the absence of life through the medium of art and photography?
- Photography is the only art-form to truly be able to give people immortality
Ideas for new Piece:
- Use Pictures: maybe hang installations from the ceiling of various corpses with their alive counterparts
- Make contrast between life and death.
- Hang various pictures clumped together showing various emotions from a single person
-Attempt to see if a person can be shown in a collage, linking to personal study
- Spiderweb of pictures showing a person "alive", doing hobbies and pictures of them "dead" in a contrast
-Rather than using editing to make a person appear dead, use makeup and practical work to make them seem dead.
- Take pictures of many body parts and facial features and edit them together to make a believable frankenstein corpse
-Show that people can feel empathy and believe that this "real person" is dead, therefore showing that anything can die and be immortalised.
- Make contrast between life and death.
- Hang various pictures clumped together showing various emotions from a single person
-Attempt to see if a person can be shown in a collage, linking to personal study
- Spiderweb of pictures showing a person "alive", doing hobbies and pictures of them "dead" in a contrast
-Rather than using editing to make a person appear dead, use makeup and practical work to make them seem dead.
- Take pictures of many body parts and facial features and edit them together to make a believable frankenstein corpse
-Show that people can feel empathy and believe that this "real person" is dead, therefore showing that anything can die and be immortalised.
Materials needed:
-need to shoot people lying down dead
-need to purchase string to hang installation
-edit pictures and have them printed in boots
-need pins
-makeup to make believable corpses
-make black and white?
-Burn corner of some of the photos to show the fragility of an image and a vulnerable to time, showing a second death after "death"
-led lights
This uses black and white features and a large quantity to display a documentary similarly to McCullen. The corpses and living people will show aspects from Izima. Burning the edges of photos will show decay and wear in a similar way to Jiang zhis burning flowers. This would bring together all my artists as well as covering the overall theme of life after death in the form of photography.
-need to purchase string to hang installation
-edit pictures and have them printed in boots
-need pins
-makeup to make believable corpses
-make black and white?
-Burn corner of some of the photos to show the fragility of an image and a vulnerable to time, showing a second death after "death"
-led lights
This uses black and white features and a large quantity to display a documentary similarly to McCullen. The corpses and living people will show aspects from Izima. Burning the edges of photos will show decay and wear in a similar way to Jiang zhis burning flowers. This would bring together all my artists as well as covering the overall theme of life after death in the form of photography.
Instalation 1: To Die Twice:
Using string/ thin metal wire photographs of people will be hanging down from the ceiling, a collage of them, in printed off photo paper.
The people will have whited out eyes and cracks to show that they're hollow and empty showing a metaphorical lack of humanity when a picture is taken. The images will be burnt in various ways and forms. A pile of ashes will sit bellow the piece, with burnt corners.
The people will have whited out eyes and cracks to show that they're hollow and empty showing a metaphorical lack of humanity when a picture is taken. The images will be burnt in various ways and forms. A pile of ashes will sit bellow the piece, with burnt corners.
Instillation 1: To Die Twice:
Installation Analysis:
The first Sub-Section from my personal study that I have chosen to turn into an Installation is titled "To Die Twice". The sub-section covers the main topic of immortality through photography, but ponders the question of how long can you prolong a persons life? If a person passes away in real life, how much longer with a picture keep them around. No matter what format its in, a picture will always fade away, become lost or simply destroyed. This is a concept I wanted to convey into the installation, with a clear narrative and "story" shown behind the picture.
As my entire study revolved around photography and actual pictures, I knew that thematically the artwork must incorporate them too, to show a clear link. I planed to use pictures of individuals hung around by thread, hanging down from the ceiling. I wanted to show some sort of decay or damage on the pictures to portray their mortality and inevitable end, similarly to us humans. I originally planned to let the pictures sit in a tub of bleach, or use a knife or scalpel to scratch out the eyes of the people in the photographs. I later decided to scrap this idea as it felt far too common and has been done many a time before. So I decided to burn the pictures, singing and charring them, giving them a more worn down charm. Visually I felt this would create a more compelling piece, and would make sense, as the question of if even the pictures can ever die too was left unanswered. Therefore I burnt 10 pages of paper in order to create a large quantity of ashes. Because even after our pictures are burnt, there are still ashes remaining, some sort of being left to contribute to the circle of life. Once burnt, I brought the ashes into the studio and laid the, under the pictures, which too had been burnt and singed to show decay. Once outcome which I was particularly fond of was how the burning looked on the images. As the pictures were not printed on regular paper but photo-paper there was a certain laminated plasticity to them. The layers of the photo-paper burnt in strange ways, sometimes only burning that coloured material on the outer layer or simply burning through, creating a hole. And whenever entire chunks of the pictures were burnt off there would be an orange stain left, really helping to emphasise the burning aspect of the piece.
The pictures themselves took the most time to complete as weren't plain, raw photos, but rather edits themselves printed off. In total there were 12 entire edits to complete in order to finish off the installation. In my sub-section I had argued that a picture can never capture the soul, the emotion and complete personality with every action they had committed. It wouldn't be a person being captured and immortalised, but rather the physicality of a person. I believe that only an empty shell of the person that once was could be preserved and so I edited the pictures to have completely white eyes, with cracks around to show their fragility. The eyes are meant to show that the people photographed are a husk of themselves, empty on the inside, similarly to a porcelain doll, fragile and ever cracking. I decided that these I would hang the pictures up with "invisible thread" to make it appear that the pictures are floating. This worked quite effectively, as a fan in the room made me realise that the images would sway, like leaves in the wind. This was finally contrasted against not only a black, but a white backdrop, showing a varied range of shadow play, in various positions thanks to the swinging and twisting of the piece. Overall I think that all my artistic intentions were met and executed successfully creating an intricate installation that conveyed a concept well, easily being linked to my sub-section.
Shown below are my installation edits where I edited the raw pictures and took the concept of the sub-section even further. Creating edits allowed me to further the concept and improve my artistic vision and complete it as a whole. When it came to editing I looked back at my notes on the raw pictures. As I had noticed the floating and moving aspect of the installation earlier, I decided to use the spot healing brush tool in order to remove all traces of the invisible thread to actually create the effect of floating. I additionally removed all visible blue tack to further show the effect of floating images. It was there that I noticed a difference between the actual installation and the pictures taken of it. The pictures didn't look like they were floating or swaying from side to side, but like they were falling, in similar fashion to how Autumn leaves fall.
To further the edit I realised I had to look and read over the material the installation was actually based off of. I wanted to take what the raw shoot already showed and advance the narrative of a second life drowning in a sea of other pictures. I spiced and edited many other individual pictures and put them into a single image in order to create a cramped cluster of images, with some even repeating, in order to show that in the large amount of pictures on the internet, no one is unique. Thousands of people will have and have had the same name as you and dozens of people will even look like you. I believe concept of being lost in a sea of people, all similar in many ways was executed successfully, being able to tell the story of "immortality" being flawed and not entirely existing.
As my entire study revolved around photography and actual pictures, I knew that thematically the artwork must incorporate them too, to show a clear link. I planed to use pictures of individuals hung around by thread, hanging down from the ceiling. I wanted to show some sort of decay or damage on the pictures to portray their mortality and inevitable end, similarly to us humans. I originally planned to let the pictures sit in a tub of bleach, or use a knife or scalpel to scratch out the eyes of the people in the photographs. I later decided to scrap this idea as it felt far too common and has been done many a time before. So I decided to burn the pictures, singing and charring them, giving them a more worn down charm. Visually I felt this would create a more compelling piece, and would make sense, as the question of if even the pictures can ever die too was left unanswered. Therefore I burnt 10 pages of paper in order to create a large quantity of ashes. Because even after our pictures are burnt, there are still ashes remaining, some sort of being left to contribute to the circle of life. Once burnt, I brought the ashes into the studio and laid the, under the pictures, which too had been burnt and singed to show decay. Once outcome which I was particularly fond of was how the burning looked on the images. As the pictures were not printed on regular paper but photo-paper there was a certain laminated plasticity to them. The layers of the photo-paper burnt in strange ways, sometimes only burning that coloured material on the outer layer or simply burning through, creating a hole. And whenever entire chunks of the pictures were burnt off there would be an orange stain left, really helping to emphasise the burning aspect of the piece.
The pictures themselves took the most time to complete as weren't plain, raw photos, but rather edits themselves printed off. In total there were 12 entire edits to complete in order to finish off the installation. In my sub-section I had argued that a picture can never capture the soul, the emotion and complete personality with every action they had committed. It wouldn't be a person being captured and immortalised, but rather the physicality of a person. I believe that only an empty shell of the person that once was could be preserved and so I edited the pictures to have completely white eyes, with cracks around to show their fragility. The eyes are meant to show that the people photographed are a husk of themselves, empty on the inside, similarly to a porcelain doll, fragile and ever cracking. I decided that these I would hang the pictures up with "invisible thread" to make it appear that the pictures are floating. This worked quite effectively, as a fan in the room made me realise that the images would sway, like leaves in the wind. This was finally contrasted against not only a black, but a white backdrop, showing a varied range of shadow play, in various positions thanks to the swinging and twisting of the piece. Overall I think that all my artistic intentions were met and executed successfully creating an intricate installation that conveyed a concept well, easily being linked to my sub-section.
Shown below are my installation edits where I edited the raw pictures and took the concept of the sub-section even further. Creating edits allowed me to further the concept and improve my artistic vision and complete it as a whole. When it came to editing I looked back at my notes on the raw pictures. As I had noticed the floating and moving aspect of the installation earlier, I decided to use the spot healing brush tool in order to remove all traces of the invisible thread to actually create the effect of floating. I additionally removed all visible blue tack to further show the effect of floating images. It was there that I noticed a difference between the actual installation and the pictures taken of it. The pictures didn't look like they were floating or swaying from side to side, but like they were falling, in similar fashion to how Autumn leaves fall.
To further the edit I realised I had to look and read over the material the installation was actually based off of. I wanted to take what the raw shoot already showed and advance the narrative of a second life drowning in a sea of other pictures. I spiced and edited many other individual pictures and put them into a single image in order to create a cramped cluster of images, with some even repeating, in order to show that in the large amount of pictures on the internet, no one is unique. Thousands of people will have and have had the same name as you and dozens of people will even look like you. I believe concept of being lost in a sea of people, all similar in many ways was executed successfully, being able to tell the story of "immortality" being flawed and not entirely existing.
Installation Edits:
Installation Plan 2: Deception and False Narrative:
- Find old pictures of myself and photograph them, later editing them to completely remove myself, in similar fashion to how Stalin removed people from important political pictures
- Use the spot healing tool to remove myself
- Some pictures should look realistic and show no trace of myself
- Some should have empty space and silhouettes which are filled with rivers and various coat hangers, bushes and other objects used by stalin
List of ways people were removed:
-removed and replaced with river
-people were replaced with bushes and grass
-suits were repaired and completed
- Use the spot healing tool to remove myself
- Some pictures should look realistic and show no trace of myself
- Some should have empty space and silhouettes which are filled with rivers and various coat hangers, bushes and other objects used by stalin
List of ways people were removed:
-removed and replaced with river
-people were replaced with bushes and grass
-suits were repaired and completed
Stalinist Edits:
Exam Edits:
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