Mystery Sculptures

While researching on the internet I came across this site and was really intrigued by these sculptures and the mystery behind them. If you're a book lover especially of Ian Rankin novels then you'll identify with them

"It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.… … We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)"


http://thisiscentralstation.com/featured/mysterious-paper-sculptures/

Crossing Borders - one week later!

On entering Niall Campbell's studio this is the first image to greet you from the far end of the converted shed. The painting is entitled "Pain" and is 6ft by 4ft. The photograph in no way does justice to this painting.....you have to see it to appreciate not only the size, the colours and how the pigments have behaved on the canvas but also to get a sense of the depth of feeling the painting projects. I immediately identified with the image. We respond in different ways often as a result of events going on in our lives at the time. It made me think of the destruction that can take place in the brain as a result of dementia and the pain this brings to families. The painting has a "neural" feel ....like a network of paths made by nerves and synapses. The white area could represent a stimulus, the dark area a black hole. Yet there is a beauty to the image, particularly where the pigments have been allowed to mingle together to produce their own patterns which gives comfort to the viewer. I didn't feel sad. I felt a connection with the painting.

More Images

On the periphery of the campus I found these gates and I thought that it would make an interesting image looking through. I also liked the colour and the texture of the rust which added interest. I had difficulty taking the photograph as the light was shining on the screen and I had to hope for the best that I had captured the image I was looking for. I played around with this quite a bit trying to get the idea of looking through some sort of window but nothing seemed to be working. I went back to the beginning and decided to crop one section of the image as I had done on the previous photo....... and here's the result.

I like this image and I think the composition works but I would like to see the gate sharper. The texture of the rust is visible but I think it could be better. I took the image back to colour and enhanced the colours which really highlights the rust and the texture on the gate.

 I think the tones are too close to show up well in b/w and if my intention is to show texture then the image benefits from colour. On the other hand the b/w version makes me think what the story behind the image is. The choices we make when altering images therefore depends on the intention

Location Photography

Collage started this week and I feel like we hit the floor running. It was straight into location photography. The task was to head outside for 45 minutes and return with six photographs
......PHOTOGRAPHS not snaps.
Shouldn't be too difficult you may think. Unfortunately Borders College campus and surrounding area is not known for it's magnificent architecture and outstanding beauty. In addition to this I felt sure that many of the students were much more technically experienced with state of the art photographic gadgetry on their I-phones. This was going to be a challenge. I set to the task with some doubts but determined not to fail...........after all it's only the start of the unit............get a grip!!

Ok job done. Must be one or two "photographs" here. Now it was time to play with these images and digitally transform them into something even more interesting. Photographs Apple Macs and Photoshop were all too much in one day, so I returned home to the familiarity and comfort of my laptop and Picassa

This was the first image to be digitally enhanced. I thought that this iron fence looked like arms with pronged fingers reaching upwards to the sky...or a bit triffid like.

and after cropping straightening sharpening edges changing to b/w and Holga-ish this was the result.

Not triffids any more but certainly dark and threatening. I wondered what I could do with another section of the same photograph as some of the shapes in the bottom left hand corner were interesting and had potential.

Wow!!!! I'm really beginning to enjoy this now. I used the same effects as in the previous exercise and introduced another step - something called HRD-ish which "emulates high dynamic range look"! This added real depth to the image by adding the light tones making the shapes behind the fence recede. I like this image. I feel like I am looking through a fence at the shapes in the distance. The fence says KEEP OUT. The imagery is suggestive of something military, like a firing range and I feel cold, fear, suspense. They are like robots programmed to destroy- cold metal devoid of feeling.

This is a PHOTOGRAPH 

This exercise has taught me to really look at my surroundings with different eyes and that we are surrounded by imagery that has endless possibilities. There are images within images and images within our minds. We just need to keep our minds and eyes open.........think I need to stop before this gets too philosophical. More digital play-time tomorrow.