Scanography - Tony

Throughout the history of photography and photomanipulation, experimental imagery has been pushing the boundries of creative imagery and creative movements. As time has gone on, new forms of experimental techniques have become available to us, especially with the advent of computer technology such as digital manipulation, videography and graphics and other non-traditional techniques.Scanography is one of these alternative image making processes, using a typical office appliance; the simple scanner. One can create a variety of different images using simple household objects, materials and techniques, and achieve striking results.

Scanography has a unique aesthetic, as the depth of field is so narrow it allows for very sharp focus on the surface of the subject against the glass, and throws the parts not against it very starkly out of focus. As the scanning resolution is high, the amount of detail captured in the areas in sharp focus are well detailed, thus contrasting against the out of focus areas more so. This effect works particularly well with subjects with detailed patterns, strands of hair or lace.

 Dragging an item down the scanner as it is scanning can cause an elongated, distorted image of an object. This is a fun, interesting technique that can make an ordinary object appear extraordinary.

Turning an object around can show multiple sides of an object all joint into one long strip as if it has been flattened out ontop of the scanner. This gives an alternative perspective on our 3D worlds and how we would initially view a 3D object by being able to view it from multiple angles in a 2D format.

Fast movement on a scanner causes wavey lines of distortion which can leave interesting effects. I tried to take pictures of my cats, which I found difficult as they wouldn't stay still. The results were still interesting due to the movement captured.

Self portraits are also fun to play with as scanners pick up fibers and hair up very strongly however can not focus entirely on your face due to the shallow depth of field.

The intention of these images is to make a small book featuring my scans, however not all scans turn out well so trial and error is key when using scanography techniques, as the only way to find out if something works is to just try it. This means I got many unpleasing images, as the process itself is rather unpredictable. These will be shown below, but not put into my final book. I wish to create more self portraits and portraits of my cats as I think they are the most visually strong images and will give a more cohesive and aesthetically pleasing feel to the book.

These images I felt weren't interesting or visually pleasing enough to feature into my book. I think the techniques I used do not work and the images overal are dull and need more colour. The above images were done in a variety of different ways including droplets of food colouring in a bowl of water, following the scanner with a lighter and fast movement that make images unintelligible. I will try to stay away of this in the future as it is apparent it is not the style I am after.

The software I used to create my book was Adobe InDesign, this software is specifically tailored to make books, magazines and other documents to a professional level. The specifications for my book is that is at least 8 images long however I would like to use more in my work. The layout I will use is below:

Simplicity will be important for the general layout as the images should be the main focus of this book. Minimalistic colour scheme and simplistic fonts are essential as the inside work will be bright and clashing. I wish to lay out each page to feature one large image and white bleed. I plan to use one self portrait and one cat portrait per double page. I wish to choose images with similar layout to show contrast in type of picture but have them still correspond well together. The book will be made of paper to keep with the simplisity of the design and will be sewn together personally.