Case studies

Experimental photography

Case studies

Jerry Uelsmann:- Photomontages, double exposure and layering

Jerry Uelsmann’s photomontages are considered to be the most significant printing since the sixties. They contain a hybrid of themes and sensibilities. The images will often contain aspects of pop, expression, fantasy and conceptual experimentation. His photographs are meant to depict a familiar place which the viewers can recognize or relate to, but instead use strange themes and framing techniques which can take the viewer on a journey to what most people wouldn’t consider doing. Most of his images contain hands as the framing device, this could be telling the viewer anything is reachable if you try hard enough and that the whole world is at your fingertips, waiting for you to go out and catch it.

Jerry’s work has a contemporary approach to it but could easily have been created similarly through historical techniques, using an old film camera. Although his work is more likely to me non-traditional as he probably used digital production and manipulation software to create the crisp images on a black background, this style of photography can be created traditionally through a film camera where you shoot two images over the same section of film then use a dark room to gain the correct exposure and develop the images. This style of photography is more likely going to be fine art and Jerry will have probably also intended for them to be viewed this way as he appears to have no intentions of using them in promotional or commercial ways. However, this style could be used as commercial in a more modern era as it could be used for beauty advertisements or possibly album art.

This technique can be created through the use of Photoshop or any other image manipulation software. It is created through layering two different images together then changing the blond mode until they seemingly fit together. Cutting round the hands is important as it ensures that they are the frame of the image and that the image will not run over the edges of them. Using the black background helps to make the image stand out and lowering the opacity of the foreground image slightly (the building or what you want framing) helps to draw out some finer details in the hands such as finger spaces and gives more depth to the photographs.

Hannah Höch:- Photomontage

Hannah Höch was a German artist and pioneer for the photomontage technique in photography. Her works are said to critique and define the idea of beauty and fashion at the time when the media was starting to create their own depictions of beauty and how women look. Women were always at the centre of Hannah’s work and her pieces occasionally depicted same sex couples and made statements even if the statement was not always an obvious one.

Hannah’s work is contemporary with a traditional method. She worked with photographs which she would cut up into sections and then glue different pieces together than were not necessarily from the same photograph or same person’s facial features. Although the more modern day technique of creating this style of image would be through image manipulation software in which you can cut things out and place them over this image, Hannah’s style of using paper collage works effectively as you are literally cutting and sticking things together. It is more effective than using Photoshop because while you have layers in Photoshop meaning you can move various bits and pieces around since they are never securely stuck down, it doesn’t have the same look or appeal which gluing and sticking by hand does. The different tones and textures stand out clearly through cutting and sticking bots and pieces by hand whereas with Photoshop you can blend the layers together and change levels, giving more of a professional and polished off look to the image.

Throughout the years Höch’s works have been found in exhibitions all around the world and some pieces can still be viewed in Whitechapel gallery, London today. She has been critiqued and reviewed in various newspapers such as The Guardian and also occasionally been seen in various magazines such as Classic Modern Art, Art and Design, and Punk Design magazines.

Anna Bodnar:- Pure photography and digital photo-manipulation

Anna Bodnar is a polish photographer who used traditional photographic methods and then heavily manipulates them digitally to make them more artistic and looking less like a traditional photograph. Anna tries to “create a rich, symbolic layer which awakens deep emotions within the spectator” rather than shock people with what she calls a “worthless scene” in which she feels the viewers attention is always attracted by something which isn’t intended to be a main eye catching point. Anna’s photographs try to depict individuality and show society as it really is rather than how it appears in magazines where the images are heavily airbrushed and never look how a real person/scene does. She tries to capture raw mood and personality within her artistic and abstract art form.

Anna’s work is contemporary art as she uses a more modern photographic approach whilst using non-traditional approaches as she used digital production heavily within her images. Her works could be viewed as fine art as her photographs are art work which has been created within themselves. They capture Anna’s emotions and perceptions on life rather than being created just out of publicity or to promote/advertise something.

Her technique is simple to recreate, as she photographs a person or object with her camera using basic settings or techniques. She then heavily manipulates them into an artistic form. Using Photoshop or any other digital software she could insert images into other images to create an abstract look as, shown in image 1, or can remove parts of the image and change them around, as shown in image 2. For the first image, Anna appears to have photographed a female and then removed their facial features, replacing them with the simplistic image of an apple. She has also appeared to have removed the subjects hair, placing in it’s place tree branches or a bush. Image 2 is much more simple yet still holds a lot of power and meaning. Anna has photographed her model then manipulated it into black and white, removing the subjects head and neck to create a strange looking image.

Anna’s work typically displays in photographic exhibitions and can often be found within magazines, for both photography and fine art.