Experiments in Photography - Freya

Word and Image
Its often hard not to look at an image without text or words instantly corresponding along with it and throughout every day life we are confronted with these images and text in advertising, products and even clothing.In 1909 pablo picaso used materials such as newspapers and other word based items in his own work and as time progressed so did the dada art movement in ww1. Using a large clash of pictures and words used to convey a message this later was then overtaken into the punk style and movement with artists like Jamie Reed and Barbara Kruger becoming popular. Sometimes you can get images that have opposing or contradicting text or visa versa that gives a whole new meaning to the content overal.

Chen Man Exhibition
As a part of my look into experimental photography I visited a local exhibition in Leeds at the Stanley & Audrey Burton gallery to look at an experimental photographers work, Chen Man. Beijin born fashion photographer Chen Man, known for her work in 'vision' magazine, shows her peculiar use of fashion photography lighting and photo manipulation at her celebratory 50th anniversary of East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds.

I would describe her work as fashion photography delving into surreal contempory art as the images are often dreamy and peculiar due to the photo manipulation used. This sets her work apart from other photographers as she uses studio and location shots and then combines them to create unrealistic scenarios. The colours are often altered and vibrant to emphasise this.

Use of chemicals and non-camera equipment photography

heliography 1826

This process is a natural occurance which makes a coating on glass or metal. As this is exposed to light it hardens and when the plate is washed it leaves a remaining image.






calotype 1841

the paper, sensitized with silver chloride, would be exposed for an hour or longer to create the negative needed to create a very light portrait.










Van Dyke brown 1842

The name originated from the similarity of the colours to that by the artist Van Dyck.
using less common ingrediants like silver nitrate and tartaric acid the process involves sandwiching the image inbetween glass and exposing it to UV light.








chemigram 1950

completely done outside the darkroom a chemigram is made of both painting and photography. The can be made with as little as photo paper, photo developer and fixer however you can create other appearance using wax and oil based painting.







luminogram 1920'-40s

A luminogram is photosensitive paper that has been exposed to different variations to light shape and intensity then possibly using colour gels or filters to create bizarre patterns and colours.






photogram 1920'-40's

A photogram is a shadow that is burned onto photographic paper either of an object or paper or stuff of similar likes. The image will show up as a negative shadow. The process is quick and easy and works incredibly well with opaque objects.








caffenol

This photography process using simple household ingrediants such as  instant coffee, vitamin C powder, washing soda and washing up liquid. The images will have more contrast and become more grainy.