Rankin Destroy
Lesson Objective: To gain an understanding of Rankin's destroy project and use this knowledge and understanding to create a series of destroys.
Rankin is the working name of John Rankin Waddell who was born in Glasgow in 1966 and is an English fashion and portrait photographer. He grew up in Hertfordshire and while studying at Brighton Polytechnic, he realised that his interest lies in photography. So, he joined the Barnfield College, Luton, United Kingdom and later went to London College of Printing. Meanwhile, Rankin met Jefferson Hack and once they graduated, together they started a magazine titled Dazed & Confuse.
Rankin's "destroy" project was a concept which involved teaming up with a children's music charity; Youth Music! Due to the charities 10th birthday, Rankin asked 70 musicians and visual artists to "destroy" their own portraits taken by the iconic photographer. This would eventually lead to an iconic, original piece of work produced by the artist themselves.
Rankin himself said that photography was just a lie. This makes sense as most of the time, the photographer has control over the composition, manipulation and overall look of an image while the subject rarely has a say in it. The idea of this concept is to allow the subject to express their true personality by expressing their emotions through destruction. Thus enabling them to release their own creativity on the image without the "lies" of the photographer clouding the subject.
Rankin's "destroy" project was a concept which involved teaming up with a children's music charity; Youth Music! Due to the charities 10th birthday, Rankin asked 70 musicians and visual artists to "destroy" their own portraits taken by the iconic photographer. This would eventually lead to an iconic, original piece of work produced by the artist themselves.
Rankin himself said that photography was just a lie. This makes sense as most of the time, the photographer has control over the composition, manipulation and overall look of an image while the subject rarely has a say in it. The idea of this concept is to allow the subject to express their true personality by expressing their emotions through destruction. Thus enabling them to release their own creativity on the image without the "lies" of the photographer clouding the subject.
William Adams (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, actor, musician, DJ, record producer and philanthropist.
Double Exposure
Lesson Objectives: Produce a series of double exposure portraits that show both man and nature and man and the city.
Experimenting first with department images.
Second try of double exposure using my own images
Second Response
'Lonely Metropolitan' by Herbert Bayer
Lesson Objectives: To gain an understanding of geometric pattern and the work of Gordin Magnin and use this knowledge to create a series of unique portraits.
Herbert Bayer was one of the leading figures in the Bauhaus movement in Germany and throughout his career was a highly influential graphic designer and artist.
The photographer intended to portray the feelings of claustrophobia, insecurities and isolation. The closeness of the windows and the height of the building in the background were probably intended by the photographer so that he could illustrate the impression of being trapped due to the cramped living conditions, with people literally living on top of each other. Photography became Bayer's preferred mode of expression in the 1930s and his work from this period shows the influence of Surrealism. Surrealism was a movement in the art world that emerged after World War 1. The movement is actually the real expression of mental emotions. One of the techniques he used in creating his work was photomontage. Photomontage is a very interesting mix of photography and graphics. Placing cut out images on to another image to represent an idea and meaning revolutionised the trend of photomontage. Bayer was partly responsible for this and played a key role in using photomontage as visual style. |
Gordon Magnin
Los Angeles-based artist, Gordon Magnin, produces work that is a perfect response to his environment. Magnin lives in a city that is visually influenced by celebrity and Hollywood advertising. Gordon Magnin’s artwork offers a new perspective of a very familiar subject matter in an extremely refreshing way. The artist mainly uses found female fashion images. He imposes geometric systems (normally triangles or squares) on the high fashion faces, either by cutting them out of the images and replacing them on a new angle, or simply by removing the shapes completely. It is no surprise that the artist’s educational background is in engineering and architecture, which explains his use of geometric structure.
Magnin says: “I was born and raised in Reno, Nevada. I grew up skateboarding and getting in trouble. I studied structural engineering and architecture in college. I like to brew my own beer. I’m a Virgo so I’m pretty organised and a bit of a perfectionist. I’m technically inclined, but I am also interested in expressionism and free association. I have amblyopia in my left eye. This basically means that I am blind in that eye and it has a huge effect on depth perception. I think it makes me see things in a different way. Imagine going through life with one eye closed. I am interested in creating something that is outside of our normal existence. We are surrounded by all sorts of objects and images and we passively categorize these things. I think it is great when a piece of art or an artefact makes you stop, look, contemplate, and re-evaluate something that you thought you knew. I think this can come from many different angles, including inventive manipulation of images, odd juxtapositions, or anything that is just outside of our knowledge range."
Magnin says: “I was born and raised in Reno, Nevada. I grew up skateboarding and getting in trouble. I studied structural engineering and architecture in college. I like to brew my own beer. I’m a Virgo so I’m pretty organised and a bit of a perfectionist. I’m technically inclined, but I am also interested in expressionism and free association. I have amblyopia in my left eye. This basically means that I am blind in that eye and it has a huge effect on depth perception. I think it makes me see things in a different way. Imagine going through life with one eye closed. I am interested in creating something that is outside of our normal existence. We are surrounded by all sorts of objects and images and we passively categorize these things. I think it is great when a piece of art or an artefact makes you stop, look, contemplate, and re-evaluate something that you thought you knew. I think this can come from many different angles, including inventive manipulation of images, odd juxtapositions, or anything that is just outside of our knowledge range."
My Response
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The Photographic Object
WWW: I managed to create