Term 2 Week 8: Portfolio Final

Day vs Night

Final Images

Final Layout Juxtapostion Day vs Night:

Final Layout Trees:

I choose to print the Black and White trees on cartridge paper. This brought a rough texture and uneven gradient to the feel and overall look of the tree images. I enjoyed photographing the trees as they bring a beauty to nature which I find very intriguing and relaxing. Capturing the trees at different times and weather created a fascinating real life looking poster. In the future I may print the trees in a fine art format using a higher quality printed paper and boosting the black and white contrasts.

The colour juxtaposition photos turned out better than expected, the contrast definitely makes the viewer think…. What is happening? Something does not look right? Questions..? When I started this Creative Genre, I was very skeptic about what the final outcome would look like. This photography project motivated me to think “outside the box”.

I have definitely being challenged and encouraged to stretch and have changed how I look through the lens by composing and styling different concepts. A big thank you to Caryline, it has being an amazing, encouraging and enjoyable journey.

Term 2 Week 7: Portfolio Presentation Planning

Layout mock ups for the Final Presentation

Portfolio Layout:

Deciding the layout of the juxtaposition and trees was challenging. They both require a fair amount of space the Day vs Night 575mm x 450mm including 7 x framed photos, and the trees are A0 in size x 4 or 5, therefore hanging them next to each other wasn’t an option.

Option 7 or 8 would be having been my choice. Another possibility was Option 13 for the Day vs Night and 4 or 5 A0 posters of the trees.

Hanging the triptychs with the other 4 images did not work as they brought a totally different concept and look to them. 

Day vs Night
Juxtaposition & Trees

Framing by: the Framing Shed Waiuku

Reusable frames with a white border were totally the best choice for the photos. This completed the look and lifted the presentation to another level.

Portfolio presentation framing and printing:

For the Day vs Night photo's, framing will be the reframed hinged frames. After looking at different textures of paper for the printing, I decided that the prints of the Day vs Night photo's (Creative Genre) will be printed on semi gloss paper A3 + framed.

The Tree photos (Editorial, Documentary Genre) will be printed on cartridge paper A0.

Reframing Photography Research:

http://www.reframingphotography.com

illustration: Jacqueline Mahannah. Window matted photograph.

The mat’s border around the image, often white, separates the image from its surrounding environment, providing a clean, viewing field, free from distraction. A window mat can selectively display the photograph: the window can open onto only part of the photo, thus cropping the image while leaving the photograph whole. Alternatively, you can display portions of a photograph’s printed borders under a window mat or float the photograph by exposing the print’s edges within the window of the mat using a hinge mount.

 illustration: Jacqueline Mahannah. Use photo corners to secure the photograph on the backboard.

illustration: Jacqueline Mahannah. Use folded hinges to secure the photograph on the backboard.

To mount with T-hinges, turn the photograph front-side down on a clean surface. Cut strips of archival tape about 3-inches long. Adhere 2-inches of each strip perpendicular to the top (back) of the photograph; the remaining inch of the strip should stretch above the print. Turn the photograph over (now, the sticky side of the tape should be up) and move the print in the position you desire on the backboard. Place a strip of tape parallel to the print, over each sticky end (forming a “T”). Press these pieces of tape onto the back board.

illustration: Jacqueline Mahannah. Use T-hinges to secure the photograph on the backboard

THE WINDOW-MATTING PROCESS

Matting the print will involve a back (mounting) board and a front (window) board. For the backboard (the mounting board), we recommend using a solid backing of ragboard, foamcore, gatorboard, or another such material. For the front board of a window mat, we recommend an acid-free board. Here we provide instructions to make a window mat for your photograph

Reusable Hinged framing is definitely my choice to frame the 7 final images. http://www.designsinkart.com

Framing & Printing OPTIONS

Photoshop: Gallery Frame Jason Moore

Reference: http://www.esbphotography.co.nz

Different framing options that are available to you.

Canvas: Printed onto canvas canon 390gsm material and then streached and wrapped around a frame, you can have either a black edge, white edge or a full wrap around of the photo.

Box Framed: Photographic print mounted on box frame, similar look to canvas framing but with out the texture of the canvas material, you have the option of a black and or white edge. Canon poster paper 230 gsm then a finish over that to protect the paper.

Fine Art Matt Print and Framed

Luster/Gloss, Pearl

Different colour . Matt boarders available to match your wall at home or office, can be double Matt or singular

Frames come in different colours on your request.

http://www.display.3acomposites.com

Folding options for the presentation of the trees.

Term 2: Week 5 Digital Tech Joyce Campbell Response

Uxbridge Arts Joyce Campbell Te Taniwha & The Thread

Research: 
Te Taniwha is an ongoing project, drawing on the mythology, history and ecology of Waikaremoana and its many tributaries and outlets, it traces the search for two great, serpentine water species: the Taniwha and the giant longfin eel.

Joyce Campbell has been working onsite in a field darkroom to produce ambrotypes and daguerreotypes at Te Reinga, home of the Taniwha Hinekörako. Contemporary cameras do not lend themselves to the depiction of mystery. Digital cameras have made photography an increasingly descriptive medium and also one that is open to greater manipulation than ever before. By contrast, the nineteenth century techniques of ambrotype and daguerreotype provide the photographer with extraordinarily detail, depth and richness while also having an innate tendency to produce artifacts from silver and ether that are spontaneous, open to interpretation and often extraordinarily beautiful. Campbell has taken photographs of caves, gullies, pools and cascades but her hope is that in the silver we might catch a glimpse of the Taniwha as well. 

Te Taniwha, like Campbell's two previous photographic series, Crown Coach Botanical and Last Light:Antarctica, is a meditation on gothic and sublime aesthetic traditions, nineteenth century spiritualist photography and ecosystems in a state of crisis. With these latest photographs Campbell 's attention was drawn homeward, to the waterways between Te Urewera and Wairoa, the region where she grew up and to which she has deep personal connections.

Te Taniwha is an ongoing project, of which this exhibition is the first manifestation. Spun from multiple threads, drawing on the mythology, history and ecology of Waikaremoana and its many tributaries and outlets, it traces the search for two great, serpentine water species: the Taniwha and the giant longfin eel.

Uxbridge Arts Te Taniwha & The Thread by Joyce Campbell

Curated by Balamohan Shingade 15 May - 16 July 2015

Joyce Campbell: Artist Statement

My research lies at the intersection between academic specialties within creative practice, science and philosophy. My recent, ongoing research project Te Taniwha, extends this interdisciplinary reach to encompass Maori mythology, while my doctoral research anticipates a further extension from photographic practices into visionary literature and film. Underlying my interest in these divergent disciplines is a persistent questioning of the function of visual art during a time of rapidly accelerating global environmental crisis. My aim is to produce research that is simultaneously rigorous and true to several paradigms; that is both objective and opinionated, and that functions as documentary, as activism and as divination. I am a photographer who makes images of landscapes and of objects within landscapes. Recent theorization of such photography has been dominated by assertions of the sublime as a quality of both Nature and art. At a time when Nature stumbles and fails, this analogy is becoming distended to the point of collapse.  I am attempting to theorize and visualize an ecology that is no longer overwhelming beyond imagination or speech, but rather is limited, damaged, injured and defiled, or resistant, volitional and responding with fury. To further my research goals, I have found myself turning to the sacred, the visionary and the mythological, and to primal images and experiences of the maternal body becoming animal.

Toru-rau-iri (2010) 16 mm film Eel

Tomo II (2010) fiber-based silver gelatin hand-printed photographs (from ambrotypes)

Te Taniwha series (these prints are fiber-based silver gelatin hand-printed photographs, 48″ x 67″ and 42″ x 60″)

The spring (2010)

Fiber-based silver gelatin hand-printed photographs

The roto (2010)

Fiber-based silver gelatin hand-printed photographs

The falls where the Taniwha Hinekorako resides (2010)
Fiber-based silver gelatin hand-printed photographs

The Tread 

 The Thread follows on from Joyce Campbell’s exhibition Te Taniwha, a project drawing on the mythology, history and ecology of Te Reinga, and is a further expression of her collaboration with Richard Niania, He Kaipupuri Korero o Ngai Kohatu – a holder of the stories of Ngai Kohatu.

Ngai Kohatu are kaitiaki of Whakapunake maunga, the sacred mountain that rises above Te Reinga to dominate the landscape of the Wairoa region and to which the tribal groups known as Te Tini-a-Maui affiliate. The mountain’s name is derived from the word pÅ«nake meaning receptacle, and it describes the mountain as the metaphorical container for the fish hook of Maui, who is said to have foul-hooked and dragged Te Ika a Maui to the ocean surface at this site.

Eighty years ago the mountain burnt in a hunting accident from which the vegetation has never regenerated. During the first photo shoot the mountain was enveloped by dense cloud and Campbell struggled to orient herself in a field of skeletal trunks that are the remnants of the virgin forest destroyed in that disaster. When those images were developed Campbell discovered that her film had been damaged – by age, heat or radiation – so that the images already obscured by fog were further clouded by the disintegration of the material surface of the film.

The centre piece of the exhibition is The Thread, a sculpture cast in sterling silver from the roots of the Nikau Palm. Knotted and split, the thread embodies an analogy- between living systems, genealogies, and the entangled trajectories of conscious thought. Between this thread and the surrounding photographs, which are also rendered in silver, an idea emerges – to do with disorientation and reorientation, loss and connection – with the mountain as its locus.

E hui ana nga wai Water gathers

He Miro The tread

Ko (Whaka) Puna The receptacle

Response: Joyce Campbell
Evaluation:
Joyce Campbell develops her film in a darkroom large format. The rich and contrasting effects are produced from this method. Very time consuming. Campbell put a lot of love and care into her photos. This is shown in her work. A lot of research and time is spent getting to know her environment, history and people. The black and white images have a lot of depth and character. I feel this would be lost if they where presented in colour. The presentation at the Uxbridge Art Centre curated by Balamohan Shingade has a very tranquil and inviting layout. This has being done very well not overpowering one or the other art works displayed by Joyce Campbell. The right amount of art has being displayed telling the story of each image. Good and very informative intro to her work by Balamohan.

Contextualisation:
The photo taken of the The Tread are based on the mythology, history and ecology of Te Reinga. The sacred mountain and beautiful landscape burnt in a hunting accident. The vegetation has never regenerated. Campbell photographed the mountain while dense with smoke and fog from the fire. Some of the film was damaged by the heat. The image are created by the events that surrounded the distruction of the forest. From the disaster amazing and beautiful images where successfully created for the viewer. Documentary genre. The viewer is definitely captured. She has being successful in leaving the viewer with question to go away and do some research.

Experimentation:
Looking at Joyce Campbell's work I decided to go out on a foggy morning and capture the bush. Trying the create the same look. Documenting the Cascades stream under the bridge.

• Natural light • Originals in colour • Photos manipulate in photoshop to created mystery and question for the viewer • 3 images

Original Panorama Colour

Misty effect black and white. Not quiet what I wanted not enough contrast.

This looks much better misty and more like the film and black and white effect. I am happy with the outcome of these photos. Manipulated in photoshop. Creating a soft and hazy looking effect. This reminds me of Joyce's work.

 Originals Colour no effects

Pakuranga Highway

Term 2: Week 5 Portfolio Overview

Overview of the Night and Day shoot in Auckland City

Juxtaposition

Concepts / Planning: Areas of choice Auckland City. Lighting and movement. People going about their daily business during the day. Evening just relaxing hanging out with friends or heading home. I am looking to create something special for the viewer. Walking around the inner city centre gave me a better idea and concept of the angles and positions for the photos. To be able to merge each photo to look different and create interesting juxtaposition. I printed each photo after the first night and day shoot. Reference: Week 3 Portfolio Shoot 4# 

Theme: Photos to be a bit more interesting, dramatic, even mysterious, drawing attention to the images. 

Presentation: Day and Night for my presentation looking at 4 to 5 photoshop manipulated images. Framing the photos with a border about 70mm. Not sure if this will be white or black. Another theme of juxtaposition is the look through Reference: Week 2 Portfolio Shoot 2# I decided to leave this project and re-visit at a later date.

Taking the shoot list:
• Tripod: creating selective blur with slow shutter speeds - like moving lights writing their magic lines and shapes. To prevent even the slightest vibration the finger on the shutter release might cause. Camera's self-timer or a cable release to the shutter. 
• ISO: No tripod available? Boost the ISO.
• Long Exposure: tripod-mounted long exposures, Slow shutter speeds will let in more light, as the shutter speed slows and the exposure lengthens, the magic happens capturing what the eye can't see.
• Autofocus Control: once focused, may need to shoot more than one picture, leaving the AF on for long exposures, the camera's going to search for focus before it shoots. AF sensor to that area,  focus on it;  switch off the AF to MF.
• Exposure Methods: exposure compensation, three-frame bracket.
• White Balance: auto white balance

Technique: Photoshop to merge the Night and Day to create a juxtaposition for the viewer. Aim to create a bit of mystery as to what is happening. Why? How? When?

 F3.5 1.3 ISO400 EF24-70mm@33mm Tripod

Night shoot long exposure to capture the light and movement. Wide DOF. Natural light of the surroundings. The evening turned out to be great no rain.
Position: High angle to capture the whole area. Leading lines using the pathway. Keeping the balance, waiting for people to enter the frame to added interest to the image. 
Lighting: Natural lighting using the lights for contrast. Shadows. No rain, sunny day so the blue sky can help boost the contest with the day and night.

  F5.6 1/80 ISO100 EF24-70mm@24mm Tripod

Day shoot Natural light of the surroundings. Wide DOF. F5.6 aperture primarily to get more light for the background.

Myers Park

Merge Day and Night photos. This is not working as the DOF and positioning is incorrect. I will reshoot the Day photo.

Steps in Photoshop:

Photoshop 2x layers opacity less for the top layer. This help to see the position of the two images.

Position to working the DOF of field and angle is different. 
Night 33mm and Day 24mm. Day photo has being reduce and slightly angle to see if this helps.

The channel shows the 

area masked. Version 1#

The channel shows the 

area masked. Version 2# 

Building Mayoral Car Park: The texture of this building is so cool. This quiet a busy looking building but has so much character, shapes, leading lines.

When looking at the photo I would like the viewers to stop look then look and wonder? What is happening here? Does this make sense? A good way to get the imagination wondering? Where a day and night photo used? If this happens I have created a successful juxtaposition.  

This building was a challenge in getting the positions and angle to fit. A bit of manipulation in photoshop help create the final image. 

Planning: To take a series of photo and position to see which angle would look the best. Final image below.

Series of Night Photos planning and testing position and angle.

Series of Day Photos planning and testing position and angle.

Steps in manipulating the Night and Day Building:

Areas in Auckland City choices: 
Aotea Square Reference: Week 3 Portfolio Shoot 3#
Civic Centre: Enjoy the shooting especially the evening with the night street movement and lights.

Idea: Movement and bright colours of the night added to the concept of the juxtaposition. Warm colours.

Day shoot looked a lot different the colours where not as warm. Building did not look as attractive as the night shoot. Cooler in colour.

Steps in manipulating the Night and Day Civic: Photoshop lightened the day shoot to create a better contrast between day and night. 

Examples shoot not working

Photographing the Myers Park steps in the correct position did not work on the day shoots. The angles and DOF are not the same. A 3rd reshoot could possibly correct this for positioning of the photo merge in photoshop. Shooting the night photo had good composition. Night shooting was a lot easier than the day for positioning and composition.