Cara Gates - Portfolio

Cara is a member of my college class, she is extremely talented and I've admired her wok all through the year. She is 18 years old, doing the same course as me - BTEC Art and Design Level 2, she would like to either be an illustrator, photographer,painter, or possibly a designer but shes not sure.

She brought in her paper based portfolio for some of us to look at.

The benefits of having a paper based portfolio are that you can easily see the quality of media used and the quality of the paper/canvas. 

The disadvantages, however are that you can't access them instantly and not everyone will see it.

(Some images are upside down :s)

F. Jay Haynes - photography

F. Jay Haynes was born in Saline, Michigan, on October 28, 1853. He opened his first studio in Minnesota. He was the first photographer in the area. 

The first image shows a hunter stood in a field or something, over his kill with his horse in the back ground. The hunter is stood "heroically" with one foot on the bison with gun in hand, both the hunter and his horse are looking in the same direction. 

This photo appears to be a train tunnel. The photo shows some symmetry, with the railway tracks leading you into train tunnel with the slight glimmer of the other end . 

 

Final ideas for photography

For my final thing for our photography unit I decided to use some of the pictures of my cats, My previous idea for the photography unit was to use my mental health as an idea but I sort of ran out of time for that and I felt it was a little bit much :s but I thought more into it and what helps me the most when im sliding down the slope of self loathing and that is my cats, Walter and Jessie. I looked more into what they usually do on a daily basis and that was mostly shoot around the house at top speed or perch in their cat tree or on shelves.

This image was basically a lucky shot that she moved as i took the picture, i love the smeared effect around her face that was made as she moved.

This one I basically just got down to Walter's level and i think it's okay

Like I was saying, Jessie likes to perch on shelves and tables and I personally love this picture due to the way it sits composition wise with her next to my mums Basset Hound ornament thing 

In this one Walter was confused by the camera so he kept bobbing his head up an down so I had loads of pictures of him just doing that so I thought, why not merge them together?! And this happened

I'm not a photographer, nor really plan on doing anything with photography, I tried my best to get into the photography unit but it never really excited me but i still tried my best :s

Angus McBean - Photography

Angus McBean was born in 1904 and died in 1990. He began his career in theateras a mask maker and scenery designer before turning towards theater photography.
Angus is famous for his theatrical and inventive photography in the 30's and 40's. He opened his own studio on 1935, and his work was later published in magazines. The Surrealist Exhibition in 1936 was an influence for his work.
He photographed The Beatles for their first album in 1960.
He was a Welsh photographer, set designer and cult figure associated with surrealism.

The first thing i notice about this picture is the woman's face, she isn't looking at the camera at all, she is facing towards the smoke with her head at about the same angle as the cigarette holder thing. 

I like that the picture is black and white because i feel if there was colour it would be too much.

The photograph of The Beatles is interesting because he took it while looking up at them rather than in front of them, this method usually makes the subject matter look bigger as you're looking up at it.

Here the center image is pictured between the dancing ballerina's legs, but as you look again it looks like the woman on the chair is maybe her dancing instructor watching her dance. I found this image interesting because of how it is positioned, it again is black and white but the lighting is very interesting because it mostly follows the dancers legs and mostly spot lights on the woman on the chair.  

Photography stuff- Jessie

My cat Jessie likes to move a lot so I got a lot of pictures of her moving. I originaly wasnt going to use them but then I thought I could merge them together and create a motion like picture.

This was the end result..

 Original.1

 Original.2

Original.3

This was the end result, it looks a bit crazy but it pretty much illustrates the motion of Jessie picking up the hair band.

Original.1

Original.2

This is what happened when i merges these pictures together.

I like how it turned out as she turned her head.

Original

B&W

Alister Dippner.2 - Portfolio

Alister Dippner

Alister Dippner is my all time favorite artist, I came across him a few years ago when I stumbled onto the band Ghost Town, I instantly took a liking to his work.

I suppose he would be classed as an established artist as he is no longer in artistic education (College/Uni)

Alister has an online digital portfolio posted through his website - The Machinist Factory - http://www.themachinistfactory.com/  

and sometimes his youtube - https://www.youtube.com/user/Imamachinist/videos

Using his digital portfolio you can access his work very easily, and quickly from anywhere at any time. His audience would be huge as it can be accessed from all over the world.

He sells most of his art on his website, sometimes the originals but mostly just prints of various sizes for about $15 to $55 

"Crystal Ball Kid" 12x18 inch

"Snowfall" 16x21 inch

"American Outcast" 12x18 inch

In conclusion, 

There are many benefits of having a digital portfolio, like you can sell your work, you can access it anywhere and so can many other people.

Edward Honaker - photography

Edward Honaker is a photographer who documented how his depression and anxiety made him feel using self-portrait photography.
I've never entirely cared for photography but these really spoke out to me because I also suffer from anxiety and depression, I understood his photographs in my own way and how I've experienced them in my own life.
Every picture in the collection is in black and white, and the way I understood it was because generally I feel like everything is dull and basically in black and white, even if you don't physically see it that way...

This would generally have been seen as a happy family portrait, but with Edwards face scratched out it makes it seem like he's being erased from the photo. Maybe he felt alone even with the people he (maybe) loves the most surrounding him?

Both are difficult mental health issues alone, but with both of them at the same time can sometimes overwhelm you and give you the feeling that you're drowning or suffocating, the photo suggests that they're making him feel surrounded and its hypothetically burying him

In this photo his body almost blends into the background, perhaps suggesting how invisible anxiety and depression is.

Most of the photos are very empty and bland, which is probably how he feels.

The reason I chose to add him to my photography thing was because one of my ideas for my photography unit at college was to try and interpret my own mental health issues in my work and probably use as my end topic to hand in. I feel like this topic is very personal to me because I never tend to talk about it and very little people know about it (I think) but it's also the topic thats closest to me.