Make Do and Mend was a pamphlet issued by the British Ministry of Information in the midst of WWII. It was intended to provide housewives with useful tips on how to be both frugal and stylish in times of harsh rationing. With its thrifty design ideas and advice on reusing old clothing, the pamphlet was an indispensable guide for households. Readers were advised to create pretty ‘decorative patches’ to cover holes in warn garments; unpick old jumpers to re-knit chic alternatives; turn men’s clothes into women’s; as well as darn, alter and protect against the ‘moth menace’. An updated version of the book was recently released to coincide with the economic recession, offering similar frugal advice for 21st century families.
How life has changed due to the worldwide pandemic
How has COVID-19 affected our everyday-lives?
The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed our lives in so many ways. From something so simple like being able to go out with your friends whenever you like, from visiting friends and family on a regular occurrence, from being able to go to social events, from being able to actually live our lives. Although, things may be starting to slowly go back to normal we are still living our lives with so many added restrictions.
How has COVID-19 changed the way we do photography in school?
COVID-19 has changed the way we do photography in school quite massively. For example, many things like leaving freely to take pictures around the school, being able to leave our seats when we want and even using the school's equipment will currently not be able to happen . This school year in photography will unfortunatley come with much less independence. It's not all bad though as even though we do have much more added restrictions I think this could really help to adapt our skills as young photographers.
Why are artists good at solving problems? What habits of minds do they have?
Artists are good at solving problems because they usually have to solve many obstacles that come along when trying to create their pieces. Artists have to be determined and have strong characters in order to solve the obstacles they are faced with. I think you also have to be very patient and persistent in order to be a successful artist.
Today we were tasked with organising items in our bags in different ways. I think the objective of this task was to encourage us to think about how we present things and perhaps to remind us of the fact that the way things look can change our whole narrative on the subject. This activity also helped me too think about different ways to make things appear aesthetically pleasing.
INSTRUCTIONS
what should I make sure I need to do when taking photographs?
-make sure to take photographs in many different angles
-focus on the lighting
-make sure you are standing in the right position to take your photograph
-think about framing and how this can change the atmosphere of photographs
-think about how a photograph tells a story
my instructions:
-take a photograph of something that inspires you
-try and take the photograph in an angle that you don't usually take photographs in
-put clear tape over the camera lens to create a blur effect
-take a photograph looking down
-take a photograph when its raining
-take a photograph of a classmate's facial feature
-try and take the photograph in an angle that you don't usually take photographs in
-put clear tape over the camera lens to create a blur effect
-take a photograph looking down
-take a photograph when its raining
-take a photograph of a classmate's facial feature
Marcel Duchamp & The Readymade
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci. Considered a masterpiece of the Italian renaissance. One of the many reasons that this painting is so famous is because of the way her eyes and smiles have been painted. Her eyes have been painted to look as is if they are always looking at you, and her smile looks almost questionable.
A lot of confusion surrounded the Mona Lisa as nobody really knew anything about the women in this painting. Nobody knew who she was, what relations she had to Leonardo Da Vinci. However, all of the answers to these questions were never disclosed. |
Marcel Duchamp was a French-American painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer. Seeking an alternative to representing objects in paint, Duchamp began presenting objects themselves as art. Duchamp became very popular when he created one of his most famous pieces, La Joconde. Concludes of him performing a seemingly adolescent prank using a postcard that represented the idea of feminine beauty, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. He chose this specific painting in particular as he wanted to spark some controversy. Marcel Duchamp couldn't deface the original painting as it was known worldwide so instead he defaced a photograph version of the Mona Lisa. Duchamp defaced the Mona Lisa by adding a moustache and a goatee. He took an already made painting, photographed it, and added his own touch to it. It was a shock when Duchamp had changed it as he added masculinity to a woman, he portrayed gender fluidity, which wasn't normalised and common like it is today. It was almost as if he was sexualising her and making a joke out of it by mocking it. Duchamp had a female alter eagle by the name Rrose Sélavy, he created her to undermine the idea that art works are only created by single, unchanging individuals. Hover this was very contradicting as under the replica he wrote L.H.O.O.Q which pronounced with a French accent sounds like 'Elle a chaud au cul'. This means 'She has a hot ass' or 'She is hot in the arse', this is a vulgar expression which implies that she has sexual restlessness. |
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This video talks in depth about the Mona Lisa and how it became so famous and why it is such a national sensation. I found this video really useful and fascinating as it touched on some things I had little knowledge on and I enjoyed the style the video concluded of.
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Kensuke Koike:
Kensuke Koike is a Japanese artist born in June 1980, I wouldn't say Koike's work could really be put into a specific category as he uses both paintings, sculptures and collages. Majority of his photographs are in black and white. The images of his that intrigue me the most would probably have to be the ones above. These pieces have been created by him taking an image and him cutting out different shapes from the image to then re-arrange them, you can still tell what the picture originally was but it's just been transformed to look different and is simply a more abstract take on the photograph before.
MY RESPONSE
This is my response to Kensuke Koike. I am fairly content with my result as I think these are fairly similar to Koike's work and I think I have taken into consideration the style of his work. I am particularly pleased with the element of abstraction I think is within this photograph and the conceptual ambience created. However, if I was to re-do this I would attempt to experiment with more distinctive and eccentric shapes and cut out more shapes in the photograph as I think this would look more fascinating.
Hannah Hoch
Hannah Hoch was a German artist, born on november 1st 1889 and died on may 31st 1978. She was a Dada artists, best know of the weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Her inspiration was Pablo Picasso’s work, She used similar layers and techniques as he did and appreciated his work.
she was known for her incisively political collages and photomontages(a form she helped pioneer), Hannah Höch appropriated and recombined images and text from mass media to critique popular culture, the failings of the Weimar Republic, and the socially constructed roles of women. After meeting artist and writer Raoul Haussmann in 1917, Höch became associated with the Berlin Dada group, a circle of mostly male artists who satirized and critiqued German culture and society following World War I. She exhibited in their exhibitions, including the First International Dada Fair in Berlin in 1920, and her photomontages received critical acclaim despite the patronizing views of her male peers. She reflected, “Most of our male colleagues continued for a long while to look upon us as charming and gifted amateurs, denying us implicitly any real professional status.”
she was known for her incisively political collages and photomontages(a form she helped pioneer), Hannah Höch appropriated and recombined images and text from mass media to critique popular culture, the failings of the Weimar Republic, and the socially constructed roles of women. After meeting artist and writer Raoul Haussmann in 1917, Höch became associated with the Berlin Dada group, a circle of mostly male artists who satirized and critiqued German culture and society following World War I. She exhibited in their exhibitions, including the First International Dada Fair in Berlin in 1920, and her photomontages received critical acclaim despite the patronizing views of her male peers. She reflected, “Most of our male colleagues continued for a long while to look upon us as charming and gifted amateurs, denying us implicitly any real professional status.”
Hannah Hoch’s work is very abstract, as she uses different pages/sections from magazines to create her own collages. She cut out different parts of people's bodies, peoples faces, different parts of cars. This links to make do and mend as she was making readymades by taking parts of different artists work and combining them to make it her own
'The Beautiful Girl' |
Hannah Hoch’s piece 'The Beautiful Girl' is a photomontage that deals with gender issues amidst the dawning of Germany’s New Woman. Hoch uses clippings of car parts from advertisements and female figures from magazines to create a juxtaposition between industrialization and perceptions of the role of women in a modernizing society. The idealized version of the New Woman was conflicted with the reality of the situations and experiences of real women in Germany, and Hoch makes a point to emphasis this problematic phenomenon.
I think this work is very empowering and touches on very relevant and crucial topics. I also think the way in which this work has been created is particularly |
My response to Hannah Hoch
This is my response to Hannah Hoch. I am overall fairly content with the way this turned out and I enjoyed experimenting with collaging as this helped widen my perspective within make do and mend. Something I particularly find pleasing about these collages is the way in which I used a variation of vibrant colours. However, if I was to re-do this I would attempt a more abstract version of this peice.
Steven Quinn
Steven Quinn is a London based artist born in Belfast. Based on collages , street photography and paintings , Steven enjoys combining his own photography with cut-outs from old magazines and playing with images to create aesthetically pleasing and sometimes humorous pieces of art. Overall , I really enjoy Quinn's work as I think it really stands out in comparison to other artists as I think Quinn creates a sense of ambiguity within his photography. I think Quinn also builds an almost eery, sinister dynamic. This is depicted through the shapes and contrast in darker colours within his work.
MY RESPONSE
This is my response to Steven Quinn. I'm not particularly enthusiastic with my result as I don't think this looks particularly intriguing, nor does it have a vast correlation to Quinn's work. Although, creating this piece of work encouraged me to widen my perspective on experimenting with different formations. However, if If I were to re-do this I would attempt to expand on this idea and disrupt the photograph further.
Maurizio Anzeri
Maurizio Anzeri makes his portraits by sewing directly into found vintage photographs. His embroidered patterns garnish the figures like elaborate costumes, but also suggest an auraof ambiguity, as if revealing the person’s thoughts or feelings. The combined media gives the effect of a dimension where history and future converge. The image used in Round Midnight is an early 20th century ‘glamour shot’ that at the time would have been considered titillating for both the girl’s nudity and ethnicity.
I find Anzeri's work particularly fascinating as his work its so unique and distinctive. I also love the contrast between the colours as I think it makes the photograph appear far more appealing. The work he's created looks very surreal and abstract which I think makes the image even more gripping. I also notice that he almost always sews on black and white paper and then uses bright colours to sew with which I also really find captivating, I also think the shapes he sews on to the paper is also something that caught my eye as their always usually a repeat of themselves.
my response to Maurizio Anzeri
This is the piece I created inspired by
Daniel Gordon
Gordon is best known for producing large color photographs that operate somewhere between collage and set-up photography. His work, as described by The New York Times, "Involves creating figurative tableaus from cut paper and cut-out images that Mr. Gordon then photographs. In addition, he seems motivated by a deeply felt obsession with the human body and the discomforts of having one."
He has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions at Zach Feuer Gallery, Wallspace, and Leo Koenig, Inc., Projekte in New York City and Claudia Groeflin Gallery in Zürich, Switzerland.[5] Gordon has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Saatchi Gallery in London, Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois, and he was included in MoMA PS1's, Greater New York 2010. He is the author of Portrait Studio and Flying Pictures. His work is in the collection of the Museum Of Modern Art, New York. Gordon was a guest lecturer at Sarah Lawrence College in 2009.
Education
He has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions at Zach Feuer Gallery, Wallspace, and Leo Koenig, Inc., Projekte in New York City and Claudia Groeflin Gallery in Zürich, Switzerland.[5] Gordon has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Saatchi Gallery in London, Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois, and he was included in MoMA PS1's, Greater New York 2010. He is the author of Portrait Studio and Flying Pictures. His work is in the collection of the Museum Of Modern Art, New York. Gordon was a guest lecturer at Sarah Lawrence College in 2009.
Education
Prison photography
I think that prison photography is a very diverse and intriguing style of photography. I also think prison photography is a very positive thing as I imagine this would help prisoners to express their feeling through their photograph's. Currently, we are in lockdown for the third time due to COVID-19, I think lockdown and prison could actually feel slightly similar in some ways as we are confined to our houses and there have been rules and regulations set in place in order to keep ourselves and others safe. Photography is used in prisons to help rehabilitate inmates because I think this can help prisoners to channel there emotions and perhaps make them feel less alone. Although, I think prison photography is a very positive thing I think it might be quite hard to practice photography in a prison as you do not have as many different setting's as you would when you are just practicing photography without restrictions. The limits and constraints that the photography workshop leader may have to follow would be that the prisoners would still have to be given restrictions which would limit the different types of photographs they'd be able to take.
Treasure hunt
Photographic Genres
Genre, a distinctive type or category of literary composition, such as the epic, tragedy, comedy, novel, and short story. Genre. Novel. Tragedy. Literature.
Some main photographic genres:
Some main photographic genres:
- Abstract photography
- Adventure Photography
- Architectural Photography
- Astrophotography
- Black and White Photography
- Business Photography
- Candid Photography
- Cityscape Photography
These are some photographs I have taken, we were given the task to fit in multiple genres in one photograph. I would say that I have successfully included multiple genres. For example, in the photograph with the vase in the middle of the road I have mixed still life and street photography and as for the other image
up close and personal
Close up photography refers to a tightly cropped shot that shows a subject up close and with significantly more detail than the human eye usually perceives. You can shoot from farther away with either a telephoto lens, a zoom lens, or any lens with a longer focal length.
My virtual trip
These are the images I've screen-shotted from google maps, these images are taken in several different places including laos, tokyo and Yamagata.
My personal project
This is my first failed attempt at my collage. I'm definitely not satisfied but I think this is a good place to start from as I can hopefully only go up from here. I was trying to create a collage inspired by Hannah Hoch but I don't think I displayed this as well as I could've. When I create my next version I would like it to look more abstract and play around more with the idea of it being 90's inspired and I would also like to put more of a meaning behind my work. Although, I'm very far from satisfied with how this turned out, one thing I do like about this is the contrast between colours.
My second idea
This is my second version of my work.
I'm alot happier with this version of my work as it channels the idea of what I was going for much clearer. However, for my last and final option I would like to make it slightly more interesting and abstract.
I'm alot happier with this version of my work as it channels the idea of what I was going for much clearer. However, for my last and final option I would like to make it slightly more interesting and abstract.
my final version
Inge Morath & Saul Steinberg
The Mask Series is a project where Inge Morath, a german photographer and Saul Steingberg, a Romanian cartoon artist collaborated in 1962. It consists of figures wearing eccentric masks made of paper bags created by Steinberg, which are then photographed in a straightforward sharp manner. The photos are in black and white which reflects the time period they were made but also adds to the element of mystery and unknown. I really enjoy these photographs as they really draw the person who is looking at them in and they are very interesting and unique.
My project
Inspired by Inge Morath & Saul Steinburg and The Mask Series, I created these masks by using a brown paper bag and drawing abstract faces on the bags, I then put the bags over heads and photographed them in different locations. I started off drawing an outline of the face on the bag in pencil but halfway through I realised I did the drawing the wrong way round, which then meant I had to start from the beginning which did set me back slightly. However, this helped me too create a clear idea of knowing what I wanted the result to turn out like.
My project links to the idea of your face being hidden with a mask which relates to people hiding their emotions/real identity, this can also link in with todays current society. With social media beauty standards becoming more unrealistic than ever, an incredibly wide range of people are effected. We are constantly seeing and comparing ourselves with others just from a single photograph, not taking into consideration that people spend hours to get that one perfect shot and have often been edited and refined and I can’t say that I don’t fall into that category of people, in a way it is human nature. Why cant we just accept ourselves for who we are? Why can’t we be proud of our real selves? The CEO’s of large social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat are privileged, rich men who massively profit from making others insecure. By being made to feel insecure from other peoples ‘perfection’ we naturally do things to try and make our selves feel less insecure which means constantly buying new products and things we see advertised on these media platforms because we believe it will push us one step closer to being societies idea of beautiful. All of this money is given to these owners and becomes a constant circle, everything links back to money. Despite having confidence and self-esteem, this never-ending vicious cycle can easily bring you down. We are completely brainwashed by what we see online, yet we struggle so much to remove ourselves from the internet in fear of missing out or simply a cure to boredom. In many ways social media can be seen as an addiction. Wearing face-coverings is almost like a security blanket, meaning there's one less thing to be judged by.
Make do & mend evaluation
This unit as a whole has not only encouraged me to widen my knowledge and understanding of photography but has made me confident to develop my own ideas and evolve my grasp of styles outside of typical photography. When I think back to the very beginning of this unit, I had a far more reserved and closeminded view of photography. However, having explored the depth and extent of this unit I now feel as though I am far more capable of exploring new ideas that link into this theme and can see how inventive and creative photography allows you to be. Something that I found particularly fascinating when exploring this unit was watching my work flourish and become more creative and innovative over time. I think this is because this unit encouraged me to stop putting limitations on what I viewed as acceptable and to be as creative as I possibly could. Although this unit enabled me to become far more expressive and prolific as a photographer, we were faced with many restrictions due to having to deal with COVID-19 throughout the entirety of this unit. However I think the pandemic had a positive effect and forced me to be more inventive and experimental with work for this unit as I was viewing things differently and responding to new situations as life became far more restrictive for us as a whole.
Throughout this unit I have researched a number of artists who have had a substantial influence in how I have approached photography in regards to Make Do and Mend. These artists Include Hannah Hoch, Kensuke Koike, Maruzio Anzeri, Inge Morath & Saul Steinberg. I really enjoyed studying the work and techniques of these artists and they influenced me to bring their ideas into my own work and develop what I was doing. These include taking the ideas of abstraction from Inge Morath and Saul Steinberg and developing these in my final project 'The Mask Project'. I was able to link this to modern day society and it's obsession with social media, which is personal to me and my experiences.
Each of these artists have encouraged me to take risks and explore my understanding of this theme which has translated into me experimenting with a range of materials. One artist that had a big impact on me doing this and I felt really spoke to me was Hannah Hoch. Hannah Hoch is a very expressive artist and my admiration for her work was instant. I particularly appreciate how Hoch tells a story through her photography, which is something that I had yet to think about within my own work. I made several responses to Hoch as I found her work truly inspiring. I experimented with collaging and recycling things in my folder. As I compared my work to Hoch I was encouraged to continue to edit and develop the recycled work. When creating these collages I attempted to start telling a story and combine both an abstract and conceptual response in order to create a response that resonated with the photography I find particularly fascinating.
This unit exposed me to more distinctive and eccentric work and this has encouraged me to be more self-assured and creative when taking photographs. I think you can see this in my ........................What I believe this unit has enabled me to do is be freer with my ideas as a photographer and that through experimentation with different materials and techniques I have developed the ability to evaluate and refine my work.
Throughout this unit I have researched a number of artists who have had a substantial influence in how I have approached photography in regards to Make Do and Mend. These artists Include Hannah Hoch, Kensuke Koike, Maruzio Anzeri, Inge Morath & Saul Steinberg. I really enjoyed studying the work and techniques of these artists and they influenced me to bring their ideas into my own work and develop what I was doing. These include taking the ideas of abstraction from Inge Morath and Saul Steinberg and developing these in my final project 'The Mask Project'. I was able to link this to modern day society and it's obsession with social media, which is personal to me and my experiences.
Each of these artists have encouraged me to take risks and explore my understanding of this theme which has translated into me experimenting with a range of materials. One artist that had a big impact on me doing this and I felt really spoke to me was Hannah Hoch. Hannah Hoch is a very expressive artist and my admiration for her work was instant. I particularly appreciate how Hoch tells a story through her photography, which is something that I had yet to think about within my own work. I made several responses to Hoch as I found her work truly inspiring. I experimented with collaging and recycling things in my folder. As I compared my work to Hoch I was encouraged to continue to edit and develop the recycled work. When creating these collages I attempted to start telling a story and combine both an abstract and conceptual response in order to create a response that resonated with the photography I find particularly fascinating.
This unit exposed me to more distinctive and eccentric work and this has encouraged me to be more self-assured and creative when taking photographs. I think you can see this in my ........................What I believe this unit has enabled me to do is be freer with my ideas as a photographer and that through experimentation with different materials and techniques I have developed the ability to evaluate and refine my work.