Illustrated Project Proposal

Illustrated Project Proposal

Ideas

• Nature
• Animals in their habitat
• Colour
• Wildlife
• Reflections
• Water
• Botany
• Flowers
• Landscapes
• long exposure
• Fruit
• mental health

Aim:       what do I want to achieve/find out.  

My personal investigative study is to create a visual record of Botany which is the study of flowers, The investigation will explore ' the life of a flower' as well as the different kinds of flowers within nature and the UK, i will also record portraiture with a mix of surrealism within the topic as well. My aim throughout this topic is to explore the vast amount of possibilities you can achieve from creating images of flowers, this will range from simple well detailed images to surreal editing both computer and physical, with these ideas i aim to create a range of images, all circling back to botanical origins. I aspire to use many different forms of editing to broaden the perspective on floral photography, this may include kaleidoscope effect, portraiture, embroidery, and drawing.

Background

i want to do this project as I've always had a interest in botany, as my interests always steer me towards the photography of nature, this also sparked my interest in Harold Feinstein's photography of flowers, in which he uses a scanner as a camera and captures some beautifully detailed images of different flowers. Imogen Cunningham and Dale M Reid are also artists whose work i aspire to lean towards as their work is so refined and simply beautiful.

My love of flowers and their sheer beauty is what pushed me towards this choice of topic, throughout my young life i was surrounded by botany, as my grandparents are keen gardeners, one of which creates floral displays for church holidays, weddings and christenings etc. So i hope to use this project as almost a homage to them as they are both heavy influences in my life. 

Photographer’s research: These are the three main photographers that influenced my choice of project topic.

Dale M Reid ~ Reid is a contemporary fine art photographer based in Toronto, Canada. Her work is inspired by studying other photographers and has been compared to Ansel Adams as well as contemporary photographers. When creating her work she uses black and white film and more traditional methods. I feel that Reid's flower portfolio is relevant to my work because she photographs flowers using an black and white medium and still manages to capture every little detail of the floral arrangements, i aspire to use her kind of approach in my work as a form of experimentation by using coloured film or using lighting to capture the silhouettes of the flowers similar to Reid's work.

Harold Feinstein ~ Feinstein was an american fine art photographer, when he passed away in June, 2015, the New York Times declared him: “One of the most accomplished recorders of the American experience.”. He started his career young, at the age of 15, and within a few years Edward Steichen purchased some of his work for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Feinstein about his flowers work "In the late 90′s I began to experiment with digital photography and became one of the first to use a scanner as a camera. This resulted in seven books of large format colour photographs and the Smithsonian Computerworld Award for digital photography in 2000."


Imogen Cunningham ~ Born in 1883 in Oregon, America, Cunningham had a 70 year career in photography, I feel that Cunningham's flower portfolio is relevant to my work because she photographs flowers using an black and white medium and still manages to capture every little detail of the floral arrangements, i aspire to use her kind of approach in my work as a form of experimentation by using computer edits using Photoshop.

Illustrations

Dale M Reid

i chose this particular image of Reid's because it was one that caught my eye, this was because sunflowers are particularly known as being bright and bold flowers but with the use of the black and white, the colours are almost muted, which makes this picture so beautiful. Sunflowers are usually connotated with happiness and joy, like the colour yellow, but because the image is in black and white, it mutes the yellow colours and suggests a change of mood.

Harold Feinstein

I chose this image by Feinstein as its symmetrical and well refined and also reflects my love of biology as it is almost a cross section of a flower, this one in particular is a tulip. This image was taken with a scanner, not a camera which i see as a form of experimentation of getting a close up image without and shine off the flower or shadows and really broadcasts the flowers beauty and doesn't draw the viewer away from it. To me this image is simple yet beautiful and really shows that even the most basic pictures can hold so much beauty and grace.

Imogen Cunningham

i chose this particular image of Cunningham's because it was one that caught my eye, this was because the flowers are particularly known as being colourful and bright but with the use of the black and white, the colours are almost muted, which makes this picture so beautiful. As the flowers carry so much detail and fills the image but because the image is in black and white, it mutes the colours and suggests a sombre mood.

Techniques

i will focus heavily on colour saturation, black and white, physical images and computer experiments within this topic as well as doing studio photography, i aim to also explore the use of a scanner as a camera or creating work that appears as if it was scanned, similarly to Feinstein's work. I also aspire to experiment with different editing techniques, including physical and computer edits which will link back to my various editing techniques like saturation, black and white, location portraiture, macro photography and many other techniques.