Final Performance Task

Mentor Assignment

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer who focused primarily on redefining the self-portrait in the 1970’s. She was born on January 19, 1959 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. After being raised on Long Island and attending Buffalo State College where she studied visual arts; Sherman became interested in painting and mixed media. Although never exposed to art while growing up, her parents being a retired engineer and a reading teacher, Sherman declared art as her major. After college Sherman started painting but stopped when she felt that her work was not up to her creative standards and that her paintings said as much as they could. Cindy Sherman had a lot more to express as an artist.  While still studying in Buffalo Sherman along with fellow artists Robert Longo and Charles Clough, she began interested in photography and together the three artists created the gallery “Hallways”; a place for new artists to exhibit their work. In the following years Cindy Sherman gained recognition as a promising young photographer with a lot of talent and an interesting perspective.  

Untitled Film Still #14

Cindy Sherman primarily works in film series, each including around ten photographs. Sherman’s untitled film stills express a lot of emotion, which makes her pictures so strong. The untitled film series called “The Complete Untitled Film Stills” Sherman produced between 1977 and 1981 included sixty-nine black and white photographs. These are her most popular works and what she is best known for.

Untitled Film Still #13

The photographs in this collection were taken to bring attention to the female stereotypes of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s that were supported by the media. To add emotion and a realistic aspect to her pictures Sherman posed as the model. All sixty-nine black and white images in this series were her differentiating what she believed the self-portrait to be. To recreate the style of the retro woman in the 50’s and 60’s Cindy Sherman got “all dolled up” using make-up, costumes and wigs to change her appearance in each photograph. She wanted her pictures to look theatrical while still making an important statement about feminism.

Untitled Film Still #56

Some of Cindy Sherman's photographs are the most expensive photographs ever sold at auction. This is proof that her unique ideas and perspective pays off in her work. Sherman's work has also inspired many celebrities to explore photography themselves. In 1997 Madonna sponsored one of Sherman's exhibits and singer Marina Diamandis from Marina and the Diamonds has stated that Sherman was her inspiration for her Electra Heart album cover. Cindy Sherman is an incredible photographer with a rare mindset that inspires her pictures.

Untitled Fim Still #50

In my effort to recreate Cindy Sherman's untitled film stills I too decided to dress-up. I wore a retro skirt and a scarf from the 1960's in my hair. I also wore deep red lipstick and dark eyeliner to emphasize my facial features. I took the pictures at my grandmother's house which still has the same decor it did back when it was built in the 70's. Together with the lighting and the setting of these pictures the atmosphere is similar to Sherman's early film stills. To take the photographs I set up a tripod and put my camera on a very slow shutter speed so that I could still be the subject. I feel that through the use of theatrics and lighting I was able to capture the essence of Cindy Sherman's work in my photographs; and that I was able to bring my own artistic interpretation to her already genius concept.

Final Image 

Sources

"Cindy Sherman Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works | The Art Story." The Art Story: Modern Art Movements, Artists, Ideas and Topics. The Art Story.org, n.d. Web. 2 June 2013. <http://www.theartstory.org/artist-sherman-cindy.htm>.

"Cindy Sherman Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com ."Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com . Bio., n.d. Web. 2 June 2013. <http://www.biography.com/people/cindy-sherman-39916>.

"Cindy Sherman-Biography." Cindy Sherman.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2013. <www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml>.

"Cindy Sherman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman>.

Silk Screening

My final alternative process for this assignment is silk screening. The objective was to silk screen something marketable. After much consideration and a few failed attempts at choosing a picture to posterize on photoshop; i went with the "cliche" of a picture of the Eiffel Tower to print on a pillowcase. I took this picture on a trip to Paris last March, and it is one of my favourite photos. 

Original Image

Posterized Image

The next step in the silk screen process was to transfer the picture of the Eiffel Tower onto a screen and then expose it to light. From here I had to wash away the emulsion and use fabric paint to print the image onto the pillowcase. The end result is something I am quite happy with. 

Silk Screen

Final Product

Breaking The Rules

This assignment is all about breaking the rules, the rules of photography. I found it especially challenging to simply forget all the compositional elements of photography I have been using to take pictures all semester. This first photo is breaking the rules of simplicity. A simplistic picture with good composition would have the pink flower as the main focus with the stone as the only background. Instead the background of this image is cluttered with other plants and flowers, as well as a ziploc bag. 

1/40 f5.6

The second picture breaks the rules of rule of positioning. The dog is placed past the rule of thirds position with its tail stretching through the picture. The dog's head is also cut out of the photo. There is also a bit of asymmetrical balance from the case in the top left corner of the picture, however it is too high to balance the power of the image.

1/200 f4.5

  This final picture breaks the compositional rule of lines. Lines are supposed to bring your eye through the photo, however this picture distracts the eye instead. There are many opposing angles and bars throughout the picture that make it hard to decipher a clear path through the image.                          

1/40 f5

Gel Medium Transfer

My second alternative process assignment is a gel-meduim transfer image of the flowers in OT's attrium. I took the picture with a Nikon D3100 digital camera and then proceeded the apply the gel medium to the printed photo.  I added acrylic paint to the image over the green and red parts of the flowers, then applied additional coats of the gel-medium. Once I had applied about thirty coats of the gel-medium and it dried, I put the image into a  tub of water and peeled off the back paper; leaving just the gel-medium picture.

Gel-Medium Transfer

Photo Journalism

During our class field trip to the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), we were assigned the task of taking a picture that could be used as the cover photo for the Toronto Star. To do this we had to become "photojournalists". I was finally able to find this photo after walking around for what seemed liked forever trying to find the perfect shot.

f.10 1/30



This picture is of a trash container and a recycling bin in Grange Park. While Cora and I walked along the park's main path, I noticed that people who walked into the park weren't there to admire the scenery or go to the playground; they were just there to throw away their garbage. These containers were being filled with fast food waste and paper. Although only one of the containers (the blue one) was a recycling bin, no one seemed to care when they stuffed their leftover McDonald's french fries into it, and their paper waste into the garbage bin. I felt that this would make a good newspaper cover photo for an article concerning the environment and the affect Toronto habitants are having on it through their wastefulness. 

Photograms

This assignment called for us to make "Photograms" (images made without cameras). To do this we played around with layering various materials in the dark room. We used different textures and exposed them to light from the enlargers onto photo paper. Together the materials the light, formed images and patterns on the paper; creating wonderful collages of composition and shape. This first image is made up of layered bubble wrap, string, tissue paper, shear fabric and the lid of a tumbler cup.

For the second image I once again used bubble wrap, string, tissue paper and shear fabric. However this time I added a foam circle and a thick piece of coiled rope. This photogram has better contrast than the previous one. You can actually see the whites, greys and blacks on the paper. 

This final image is more of a staged photogram. I created a scene out of the bubble wrap, shear fabric and string. The string was used to make balloons and I used cotton balls and a foam circle to make the clouds and sun. 

Surrealist Time Lapse

This picture is called "Dancing Man" because of the multiple positions the wooden doll is placed in throughout the photo. What I call "the dancing man" doll is actually called an articulated joint artist's mannequin. I found it in the classroom and made a background using an easel and pink tissue paper. I used a tripod to hold the Nikon D3100 digital camera I used in place while taking each individual picture. From there I used photoshop to place all the photographs together, creating a picture with movement. The aperture for all seven pictures is f.8 and the shutter speed is 1/15.

"Dancing Man"

This image was a beautiful mistake. While saving the finished photoshop image as a jpeg. file, I accidentally saved it as a jps. file and it changed the colours of the image and squeezed the pictures of all seven dolls together into a picture half the size. 

"Colourful Dancing Man"

Renaissance Mish Mash

This final portrait lighting assignment is the Renaissance portrait. The intention was to find a Renaissance period portrait and recreate it using a student from the class. Once again I used Cora as my subject and tried to use photoshop to place here face on top of the girl in the painting's face. I took this picture using a Nikon D3100 digital camera, and various lighting techniques to illuminate her face.

1/15 f.8

Madonna Pietra degli Scrovegni

The Renaissance was a period of classical art, musical and culture mainly between the 14th and 17th centuries. The masters of the Renaissance, Da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo introduced new techniques in painting and sculpture. One of these techniques was the use of perspective. This changed the way people saw the world through art. Art was now used as a way of preserving the feeling of the time. High Renaissance, the period of the masters explored expression and light to capture the emotion of the scene. As well as the discovery of religion which influenced hundreds of paintings throughout the Renaissance time period. 

The artist of this painting is British pre-Raphealite painter Maris Spartali Stillman. Stillman is considered one of the great female painters of the Romanticism and Renaissance revival time periods. She frequently used Renaissance costumes and props in her art to re-create the atmosphere of the time. There is little known about her painting style besides the fact that she admired the Renaissance.

One of Marie Spartali Stillman's more famous works is Madonna Pietra degli Scrovegni. Now hanging in the Liverpool Museum of Art, this painting is a mixture of body colour and watercolour paints. The subject is a character from Italian poet Dante. She is descirbed as being a " heartless lady in green" holding a crystal ball with Dante's reflection.

Mixed Lighting

This third assignment in the portrait lighting project was mixed lighting. The objective was to take pictures that utilized both natural and artificial light. This first picture is of Cora sitting in one of the school's stairwells. The natural light from the window is the primary light source, but i was shinning an LED flashlight at her face, which brightens the photo. I used a Nikon D3100 camera to take this photo.

1/15 f. 8

For this picture I had Cora stand underneath a yellow wall lamp in another school stairwell. This stairwell is not as well-lit as the previous one. However the lamp still illuminates her hair, almost like a hair light. You can see the light from the windows in the bottom left corner of the image. I used the same Nikon camera for this photo. At the time this picture was taken Cora was eating gold fish crackers, therefore they are the reason for her funny expression. 

1/15 f.16

This last picture is taken in the same stairwell as the one before but with less of the yellow lamp above. Instead of having her stand directly underneath the lamp, I had Cora stand a little farther to the right, this took away some of the natural light, so I had to shine a flashlight at her face. That is what creates the slight shadow on the right side of her face. I once again used the same Nikon D3100 camera as the two previous photographs.

1/15 f.16

Playing With Light

For this assignment I played with different light sources and used light from flashlights and glow sticks to draw pictures. This picture of Cora was originally supposed to be her as a cat, however the tail was over-exagerated and I only had time to draw one ear. It ending up making her look more like a unicorn. I used a Nikon D3100 camera.

 20" f.22

This photo of Cora was my first attempt at using glow sticks to play with light. Although it looks blue in the picture, the glow stick was actually pink. I used it to draw a heart around Cora. She wasn't exposed to enough light to illuminate her face, therefore this picture is rather dark. I used the same camera to take this photograph as the previous one. 

15" f.22

This is my second attempt at using a glow stick to draw a heart around Cora. This time she was exposed to a brighter light source for a longer period of time, so her "kissy-face" is visible in this shot.  The shutter speed of fifteen seconds was not long enough for this picture because I am visible on the right-hand side. The shadowy figure is me drawing the hear around Cora; it took longer than originally thought to draw the heart, so the photo was taken with me in it. I once again used the same Nikon D3100 camera to take this picture.

15" f.22

This photograph is the most interesting one that I took. What started out as a picture of Cora with antenna like a bee, turned into a blended picture of the two of us. This occurred when I stepped in front of the camera to draw the antenna. Unfortunately the primary light source that lit up Cora's face did the same to mine, and our faces were mixed together, and the antenna was lost in the background. The same Nikon camera was used to take this picture as well.

20" f.22

Studio Lighting

My subject, Cora Vancraenenbroeck, was facing towards the soft box light with a hair light shining behind her in this photograph. This creates a slight shadow on her face, neck and hair, while the back of her hair is illuminated. I used an Olympus E-410 EVOLT dslr camera, and a ZUIKO digital 14 - 42 mm lens. This is my favourite picture I took for this assignment because of the light used.

1/40 f5.3

This photograph was taken with the same Olympus camera and lens. This time Cora was exposed to a bright light with no umbrella or soft box covering it. As a result her entire face was illuminated. I did not use a tungsten light setting while taking this picture, therefore Cora's skin has a yellow tint to it because of the warmer colour temperature.

1/10 f5.6

This last picture was taken with the same camera and lens as the previous two. For this picture Cora was positioned towards a soft box and away from an overhead light with no umbrella or screen. I chose this picture because I loved her expression. She was fixing her hair at the time I accidentally took this photograph. This photo also has shadows, as a result of both lights pointed towards her.

1/40 f5.0

Name Banner

I found this assignment quite difficult because it forced me to look at things in a different way. Many of the letters I found were actually upside down or backwards when I saw them normally. However when I changed my perception and the position of my camera, I saw numerous opportunities for letters I couldn't before. One example of this is the letter "K". I took this picture of the open book at the bottom of one of O.T.'s signs. By changing my view from horizontal to vertical, I was able to see this unique "k"-like shape to start my name banner.

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is my all-time favourite photographer. She got her start shooting for Rolling Stone magazine in the 70’s and has since photographed numerous celebrities and noble figures; including John Lennon, Demi Moore, and even Queen Elizabeth II. She famous took the last professional photo ever taken of Beatle's band member John Lennon, five hours before his death on December 8th, 1980. Annie Leibovitz now shoots exclusively for Vanity Fair magazine. She is my favourite photographer primarily because of her use of light. The way she exposes a model or celebrity to light changes the entire picture. She also uses unique positions to create interesting composition using different vantage points to manipulate size. 

Taylor Swift as Rapunzel - Disney Dream Portrait Series
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disney-dream-portraits/

Alice in Wonderland - Vogue
http://theartofsfb.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/alice-in-wonderland-overview/

"Leonardo Takes Wing" (Leonardo DiCaprio with a swan) - Vogue
http://bocamag.com/blog/2013/02/06/annie-leibovitz-unusual-reality//

http://www.vanityfair.com/contributors/annie-leibovitz