Newest Project

Last thursday, after turning in our final photo collages, we were introduced our next project: creating a cardboard chair. Without tape or glue. Out of a 4x4 sheet of cardboard. Stable enough to hold our body weight. This was no easy task by any means, and a mock up was already due in class today. While mine in still very simple at this point, I would like to ideally make it more appealing to the eye, and maybe even add a back into it. This model met all the requirements, yet needs more of the design aspect in it.

Final Project

After pulling an all-nighter last night, my final collage has finally been finished! I am extremely happy with it and absolutely love how it turned out. I have also gotten very positive feedback from all my friends that have seen it, along with all of the girls in the house. Here's a picture of the final product:

Project Description & Summary

For the first project of the semester, we started from day one with discussing what we were to do and from there hit the ground running. The first day back to class we were already given an assignment to find four interesting locations/objects to photograph, and make a collage using 4-7 images. For these, I chose to do Fraser Hall, which I love due to the iconic flags on the top; Snow Hall, which is overall a beautiful structure; Gamma Phi Beta, my sorority house seeing as I’ve always loved the architecture of Greek houses; and finally a McDonalds coffee cup. The simplicity of this last one made for an interesting collage, however when made of 75+ images I can’t see that being all too interesting.

We critiqued these collages the next day in class during which time I decided to carry on with my sorority house. I had gotten positive feedback on the cup too, but like I said, I just can’t see that looking superb when blown up to excess. When deciding what I would do to make my collage more interesting seeing as it currently resembled a plain old photograph, I thought of the painting inside the house, of the house, and thought it would be extremely neat to collage these two. I played with this idea for the next critique involving making two collages of the same size. I did one with the painting and real house mixed, and one half and half. This idea got a lot of positive feedback and I loved the idea at this point. I decided that this would for sure be what I was going to do for the final.

The next step was yet 2 more collages up for critique. This time they were to be bigger in size, using 15-20 photographs. The individual photographs themselves were also to be larger for this step. I once again combined the photos of the Gamma Phi house and painting, both mixed and half-and-half. In a bigger size I still liked this idea and felt as though it would only improve as more photos were added. I decided to go with the mixed version for my final at this point, even though it was a hard choice. I felt as though a mixed would be more visually appearing by creating an abstract, yet real image at the same time.

For the final project, we were to use 75+ photos, preferrably matte, of our object and collage them together. We were then to mount it onto some sort of structure to support it, and that concludes our project on photography!

Round Three Collages

For our next step, we were to continue on with creating our collages, this time an even bigger one. I used real sized pictures, and about 20 pictures in each. Once again I played around with the half-and-half vs. mixed layouts. I am still undecided as to which one I will go with. I intend to clean up the edges, incorporate more of the lawn/sky, brighten the colors of the actual house, and go with matte printing instead. Overall, I'm very excited for how my final project will turn out.

Round Two Collages

For today, we were instucted to bring back more collages as well. Since I love my sorority house so much, I really wanted to do more with that. There's a drawing inside of the house of the foyer which really got my wheels turning... what if I made a collage of the real thing, along with the drawing? I tried both mixing the two and doing it half and half. I got very positive feedback today and plan to carry on with this idea.

Round One Collages

Our first project of the semester was announced back on Tuesday, and we were already put to work. Our final assignment is to create a collage of about 70-80 4x6" pictures. This is supposed to be of something we find visually appealing. For today, we were assigned to create 4 to bring back to the group for critiques. I really enjoy building structures, so I did some of buildings around campus, as well as throw in an object. After viewing the class' work, I definitely want to abstract mine more for the next round. As for the buildings, I like my sorority house the best. I have a slight obsession with sorority houses in general, so maybe it would be neat to collage all of ours on campus. I also really like the simplicity of the coffee cup and might do more with that.

"The Photographer's Eye"

This article was all about the transfer from paintings and drawings to photographs as the prominent form of art. This lead to many new discoveries of the real world. While the beginning of this article was rather dry, going through all of the history of how it came about and how it has changed art as a whole, it became very informative when talking about the five issues faced in the developing process.

The first of these mentioned was the thing itself. People would think of the object in the photograph as the truth, and what the photographer saw an illusion. In this sense, the photograph was more important than the extra moment, seeing as this would outlive the person in the photo.

The next issue faced was the detail. This was a stuggle because, since it was supposed to show the truth, it was thought to tell a story. However, it’s hard for a single story to be narrative when you only get a glimpse at that one specific moment.That’s why it was determined that pictures weren’t meant to tell a story, but rather to be real.

Following that was the problem concerning the frame. This served as a cropping device beyond their control. The edges with the picture’s scene is abruptly cut off. This quality greatly interested inventive painters of the ninteenth century.

Among the issues was time. It’s common knowledge that a picture captures an instance in time. However, this lead to discoveries. As shutter times became faster, it was learned that we don’t always process things as how they really look in that one instance, such as a horse galloping. This became very fascinating for the photographer. 

Last, but certainly not least is the vantage point. As photography began advancing, people began to realize that pictures can be taken from all angles for a different point of view. This adds much interest and gives the photographer more to work with.

The overall purpose of this article was that photography has been a journey. It has taken a lot to get to where they are today. While I found myself being rather bored reading the piece, it definitely had some good points. All of the issues are good things to consider when taking a photograph, and items we all should’ve considered for this project. Photography is far more than pointing and shooting, with some people simply don’t understand considering it’s the camera creating the final picture.