Friday 28 February 2014
Wednesday 26 February 2014
Tony Howell
"Tony Howell is one of England's finest landscape photographers. A professional photographer with over 35
years experience,
he is based in Somerset, near Bristol. His style is instantly recognisable
- simple, uncluttered compositions and an overall sense of
peace and stillness borne out
of his deep love of the natural world." - http://www.tonyhowell.co.uk/about.htm
Through researching different photographer I came across Tony Howells work, before I read anything about the photographer himself I saw some of his photographs and I was instantly grabbed and dragged in by the different colours and compositions that are within his photographs.
His work is well known and he has done work for publications such as National Geographic and The BBC.
Here is a statement from Howell that I read on his website
"When I started using a camera in 1977, I really started seeing the world properly for the first time.
I take photographs because I'm interested in anything beautiful, but particularly the natural world. I just love nature; I love the creative process, and tuning in to my own interpretation of the subject; trying to express my feelings about what I see. I hope to get my message across in my images: - peace and joy through beauty. Concentrate on beauty and it infuses your life. It can be a spiritual experience that lifts me higher; mostly when I'm photographing, but sometimes when I make a great print and relive being there. Taking photographs makes me seek out beauty, which then uplifts me. I'm not just doing it for myself; I've received many thank you messages from people over the years. My work has uplifted them too, and many say it inspires them. This is surely the greatest compliment, and spurs me on to improve my skills and attempt to capture more fine glimpses of this fascinating, fragile world." - http://www.tonyhowell.co.uk/about.htm
Through researching different photographer I came across Tony Howells work, before I read anything about the photographer himself I saw some of his photographs and I was instantly grabbed and dragged in by the different colours and compositions that are within his photographs.
His work is well known and he has done work for publications such as National Geographic and The BBC.
Here is a statement from Howell that I read on his website
"When I started using a camera in 1977, I really started seeing the world properly for the first time.
I take photographs because I'm interested in anything beautiful, but particularly the natural world. I just love nature; I love the creative process, and tuning in to my own interpretation of the subject; trying to express my feelings about what I see. I hope to get my message across in my images: - peace and joy through beauty. Concentrate on beauty and it infuses your life. It can be a spiritual experience that lifts me higher; mostly when I'm photographing, but sometimes when I make a great print and relive being there. Taking photographs makes me seek out beauty, which then uplifts me. I'm not just doing it for myself; I've received many thank you messages from people over the years. My work has uplifted them too, and many say it inspires them. This is surely the greatest compliment, and spurs me on to improve my skills and attempt to capture more fine glimpses of this fascinating, fragile world." - http://www.tonyhowell.co.uk/about.htm
Again this photographers work relates to my own in a different way, with the abstract images showing different compositions and formations from natural things.
Ryan Bush
Ryan Bush is an abstract photographer, the photograph above is from a series titled 'Colour' and is one that was undertaken from the year 2005 through to 2011 with him capturing and adding new photographs to the series. All of the images in this series can be seen here : http://www.ryanbushphotography.com/portfolio.php?dir=color&title=Color,%202005-2011
One of the reasons that I like this series of photographs so much is how they are very much nature based images focusing on the natural beauty of wildlife and such. Showing the different formations and compositions that are natural and beautiful. He uses macro photography to get the small detail that you may not really notice to bring out the detail and beauty of things - which, is something that I intend to do within this project.
I read this statement from Bush himself which was on his website under 'Artist Statement'
"
Mysteries are hidden everywhere around us in plain sight, in bare
tree branches and simple leaves,
electric wires, manhole covers, shadows on stairs, buildings and
architecture, even in our own handwriting. Some of these wonders
we take for granted, while others we may never have really seen.
For me, abstract photography is a bridge
that connects our everyday world with imaginary worlds, places that
are no less real just
because we can't touch them. We must be content with seeing them
through the eye of abstraction.I am drawn to images that carry a certain meditative quality. Part of this is achieved by using a sparse language of geometrical shapes, lines, and rhythms. Furthermore, I often use a narrow tonal range, so that the images are either overall dark or overall light. By abstracting away from the literal subject matter, I hope to leave behind the question "What is it?", and let our associations to come to the forefront. My goal is for the photographs to have a feeling of meditative simplicity, so they are images not from our everyday, mundane world of hustle and bustle, but instead from the more symbolic and archetypal world of our imagination."
In a way this is exactly what I am getting at with this project by trying to get people to see the things that go by unseen and don't get noticed - but are things that should be see and appreciated as they are vital to out everyday lives and wellbeing.
I have looked through a number of the different series' of photographs on his website and I am really draw to his work, his photographs are really intriguing and like he has stated he want to raise questions and get people wondering what they are seeing, he has definitely done this with some of his images which I really like and it makes them even more interesting as they have a case of mystery against them.
Tuesday 11 February 2014
first few shots...
The test shots that i submitted with my proposal -
Since submitting these test shots i haven't really taken that many photo but i have recently started to snap more of what i am intrigued by and what i see as beautiful, here are some of the photographs that i have taken over the past few weeks.
All of these photographs have been edited and put through Instagram, this is simply just a way of me experimenting and seeing the different types of outcomes i can get. there is also a common theme of light throughout these images - something that i have mentioned that i feel is important to an image.
Since submitting these test shots i haven't really taken that many photo but i have recently started to snap more of what i am intrigued by and what i see as beautiful, here are some of the photographs that i have taken over the past few weeks.
All of these photographs have been edited and put through Instagram, this is simply just a way of me experimenting and seeing the different types of outcomes i can get. there is also a common theme of light throughout these images - something that i have mentioned that i feel is important to an image.
My style...
Something that I am very aware of is the amount that I use my camera on my phone, I know I should but I don't tend to carry my camera around with me due to how bulky it is, so as my back up I always have my phone handy!
I find that some of my favourite and most interesting photographs are taken using my phone, i then put the photos through numerous editing apps to add different effects, filters and other things. I edit them to a point in which they are the most powerful and effective, but never overly edit them as it makes them look tacky and ruins the effect a little bit.
One thing that I have also noticed when it comes to what i photograph is that everything seems to be based a lot around light, how the light has caused different formations or compositions and camera flare seems to be creeping in a decent amount. In all honesty light plays a big part in my photographs, i focus a lot on the effects that the natural light surrounding me has - it is like the main point i focus on.
I find that some of my favourite and most interesting photographs are taken using my phone, i then put the photos through numerous editing apps to add different effects, filters and other things. I edit them to a point in which they are the most powerful and effective, but never overly edit them as it makes them look tacky and ruins the effect a little bit.
One thing that I have also noticed when it comes to what i photograph is that everything seems to be based a lot around light, how the light has caused different formations or compositions and camera flare seems to be creeping in a decent amount. In all honesty light plays a big part in my photographs, i focus a lot on the effects that the natural light surrounding me has - it is like the main point i focus on.
Monday 10 February 2014
Kant's theory of the sublime and beautiful
I have read a little bit about Kant's theory of the sublime and beautiful. This theory is both intriguing and mind boggling all at the same time. It is based on humans theory of what is beautiful and what is seen as beautiful and how people see each other.
" according to the order that make up the four sections of Kant's work, 1) distinct (nonhuman)
objects of the feeling of beauty and sublimity, 2) attributes of the beautiful
and sublime in human beings in general, 3) the distinction between the sublime
and beautiful in the relations of the sexes, and 4) the bearing of the feeling of
the beautiful and the sublime on characteristics of nations." - http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/30054209?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103600842703
The book he wrote has four different sections outlining four different sections of the theory, the first being the relation between nonhuman objects and the feelings of beauty and sublimity that rise.
I have not read this chapter within the book so i am not sure of what he actually talks about in full as all i have read at this point is a bit about this book as a review from someone, therefore there isnt much detail about it and what he has written about.
I am guessing that within section one he talks about how we - humans, see things and their view sometimes gets corrupt and they are not necessarily seeing the beauty of the nonhuman things that are surrounding them.
"He argued that human concepts and categories structure our view of the world and its law"
-
"he argues that it is our faculty of judgment that enables us to have experience of beauty and grasp those experiences as part of an ordered, natural world with purpose"
.
"Kant believes he can show that aesthetic judgment is not fundamentally different from ordinary theoretical cognition of nature, and he believes he can show that aesthetic judgment has a deep similarity to moral judgment. For these two reasons, Kant claims he can demonstrate that the physical and moral universes – and the philosophies and forms of thought that present them – are not only compatible, but unified. " - http://www.iep.utm.edu/kantaest/
"The initial issue is: what kind of judgment is it that results in our saying, for example, ‘That is a beautiful sunset’. Kant argues that such aesthetic judgments (or ‘judgments of taste’) must have four key distinguishing features. First, they are disinterested, meaning that we take pleasure in something because we judge it beautiful, rather than judging it beautiful because we find it pleasurable. The latter type of judgment would be more like a judgment of the ‘agreeable’, as when I say ‘I like doughnuts’.
Second and third, such judgments are both universal and necessary. This means roughly that it is an intrinsic part of the activity of such a judgment to expect others to agree with us. Although we may say ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, that is not how we act. Instead, we debate and argue about our aesthetic judgments – and especially about works of art -and we tend to believe that such debates and arguments can actually achieve something. Indeed, for many purposes, ‘beauty’ behaves as if it were a real property of an object, like its weight or chemical composition. But Kant insists that universality and necessity are in fact a product of features of the human mind (Kant calls these features ‘common sense’), and that there is no objective property of a thing that makes it beautiful.
Fourth, through aesthetic judgments, beautiful objects appear to be ‘purposive without purpose’ (sometimes translated as ‘final without end’). An object’s purpose is the concept according to which it was made (the concept of a vegetable soup in the mind of the cook, for example); an object is purposive if it appears to have such a purpose; if, in other words, it appears to have been made or designed. But it is part of the experience of beautiful objects, Kant argues, that they should affect us as if they had a purpose, although no particular purpose can be found." - http://www.iep.utm.edu/kantaest/
I can across this interesting and insightful explanation which goes a bit deeper into the theory which helped me to understand it a lot more. Kant's theory is about people seeing the beauty within the world and how it affects each one person differently, it depends on their views of the world and how they see things, this in turn cant alter how they think about certain situations and objects.
" according to the order that make up the four sections of Kant's work, 1) distinct (nonhuman)
objects of the feeling of beauty and sublimity, 2) attributes of the beautiful
and sublime in human beings in general, 3) the distinction between the sublime
and beautiful in the relations of the sexes, and 4) the bearing of the feeling of
the beautiful and the sublime on characteristics of nations." - http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/30054209?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103600842703
The book he wrote has four different sections outlining four different sections of the theory, the first being the relation between nonhuman objects and the feelings of beauty and sublimity that rise.
I have not read this chapter within the book so i am not sure of what he actually talks about in full as all i have read at this point is a bit about this book as a review from someone, therefore there isnt much detail about it and what he has written about.
I am guessing that within section one he talks about how we - humans, see things and their view sometimes gets corrupt and they are not necessarily seeing the beauty of the nonhuman things that are surrounding them.
"He argued that human concepts and categories structure our view of the world and its law"
-
"he argues that it is our faculty of judgment that enables us to have experience of beauty and grasp those experiences as part of an ordered, natural world with purpose"
.
"Kant believes he can show that aesthetic judgment is not fundamentally different from ordinary theoretical cognition of nature, and he believes he can show that aesthetic judgment has a deep similarity to moral judgment. For these two reasons, Kant claims he can demonstrate that the physical and moral universes – and the philosophies and forms of thought that present them – are not only compatible, but unified. " - http://www.iep.utm.edu/kantaest/
"The initial issue is: what kind of judgment is it that results in our saying, for example, ‘That is a beautiful sunset’. Kant argues that such aesthetic judgments (or ‘judgments of taste’) must have four key distinguishing features. First, they are disinterested, meaning that we take pleasure in something because we judge it beautiful, rather than judging it beautiful because we find it pleasurable. The latter type of judgment would be more like a judgment of the ‘agreeable’, as when I say ‘I like doughnuts’.
Second and third, such judgments are both universal and necessary. This means roughly that it is an intrinsic part of the activity of such a judgment to expect others to agree with us. Although we may say ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, that is not how we act. Instead, we debate and argue about our aesthetic judgments – and especially about works of art -and we tend to believe that such debates and arguments can actually achieve something. Indeed, for many purposes, ‘beauty’ behaves as if it were a real property of an object, like its weight or chemical composition. But Kant insists that universality and necessity are in fact a product of features of the human mind (Kant calls these features ‘common sense’), and that there is no objective property of a thing that makes it beautiful.
Fourth, through aesthetic judgments, beautiful objects appear to be ‘purposive without purpose’ (sometimes translated as ‘final without end’). An object’s purpose is the concept according to which it was made (the concept of a vegetable soup in the mind of the cook, for example); an object is purposive if it appears to have such a purpose; if, in other words, it appears to have been made or designed. But it is part of the experience of beautiful objects, Kant argues, that they should affect us as if they had a purpose, although no particular purpose can be found." - http://www.iep.utm.edu/kantaest/
I can across this interesting and insightful explanation which goes a bit deeper into the theory which helped me to understand it a lot more. Kant's theory is about people seeing the beauty within the world and how it affects each one person differently, it depends on their views of the world and how they see things, this in turn cant alter how they think about certain situations and objects.
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko, most commonly known for the abstract expressionism pieces that he produced throughout his career as a painter.
"In late 1940s and early 1950s, Mark Rothko created some of the pieces which he is most well known for in his career. Many of the art which he put out during this period showcased the large and dark brush strokes, the large b locks of color that were used in his paintings, and a variety of washes were also used in the art forms which he created during these years. Large and contemplative art was what he created using this style of stroke, and the colors that were chosen for the art forms which he created; many of these pieces were symbolic of American life during the period, others were symbolic of the changes in the art world, and the abstract work which he was turning his focus towards, as his career progressed.
In late 1950s, Mark Rothko took yet another approach to the works which he created; darker colors were often used in his art, and darker hues which encompassed richer textures, also became a focal point of the work which he was creating. During this time, the artist also spent quite some time focusing on a work that he was to create for a chapel that was located in Houston. Not only did this showcase the belief in spiritual art, but also in his belief of the church. It showcased the spiritual and emotional ties with art, and his beliefs." - http://www.markrothko.org/
"In late 1940s and early 1950s, Mark Rothko created some of the pieces which he is most well known for in his career. Many of the art which he put out during this period showcased the large and dark brush strokes, the large b locks of color that were used in his paintings, and a variety of washes were also used in the art forms which he created during these years. Large and contemplative art was what he created using this style of stroke, and the colors that were chosen for the art forms which he created; many of these pieces were symbolic of American life during the period, others were symbolic of the changes in the art world, and the abstract work which he was turning his focus towards, as his career progressed.
In late 1950s, Mark Rothko took yet another approach to the works which he created; darker colors were often used in his art, and darker hues which encompassed richer textures, also became a focal point of the work which he was creating. During this time, the artist also spent quite some time focusing on a work that he was to create for a chapel that was located in Houston. Not only did this showcase the belief in spiritual art, but also in his belief of the church. It showcased the spiritual and emotional ties with art, and his beliefs." - http://www.markrothko.org/
Friday 7 February 2014
Jackson Pollock
Pollock was an American painter, and most known for this works that were of abstract expression.
"
From 1938 to 1942 he worked for the Federal Art Project. By the mid 1940s he was painting in a completely abstract manner, and the `drip and splash' style for which he is best known emerged with some abruptness in 1947. Instead of using the traditional easel he affixed his canvas to the floor or the wall and poured and dripped his paint from a can; instead of using brushes he manipulated it with `sticks, trowels or knives' (to use his own words), sometimes obtaining a heavy impasto by an admixture of `sand, broken glass or other foreign matter'. This manner of Action painting had in common with Surrealist theories of automatism that it was supposed by artists and critics alike to result in a direct expression or revelation of the unconscious moods of the artist.
Pollock's name is also associated with the introduction of the All-over style of painting which avoids any points of emphasis or identifiable parts within the whole canvas and therefore abandons the traditional idea of composition in terms of relations among parts. The design of his painting had no relation to the shape or size of the canvas -- indeed in the finished work the canvas was sometimes docked or trimmed to suit the image. All these characteristics were important for the new American painting which matured in the late 1940s and early 1950s." - http://www.jacksonpollock.com/bio.shtml
http://manetas.com/pollock/
I came across a website where you can create digital pieces of abstract art with the use of your mouse. you can controll the strokes and movement of the 'brush' and change the colours to suit.
"
From 1938 to 1942 he worked for the Federal Art Project. By the mid 1940s he was painting in a completely abstract manner, and the `drip and splash' style for which he is best known emerged with some abruptness in 1947. Instead of using the traditional easel he affixed his canvas to the floor or the wall and poured and dripped his paint from a can; instead of using brushes he manipulated it with `sticks, trowels or knives' (to use his own words), sometimes obtaining a heavy impasto by an admixture of `sand, broken glass or other foreign matter'. This manner of Action painting had in common with Surrealist theories of automatism that it was supposed by artists and critics alike to result in a direct expression or revelation of the unconscious moods of the artist.
Pollock's name is also associated with the introduction of the All-over style of painting which avoids any points of emphasis or identifiable parts within the whole canvas and therefore abandons the traditional idea of composition in terms of relations among parts. The design of his painting had no relation to the shape or size of the canvas -- indeed in the finished work the canvas was sometimes docked or trimmed to suit the image. All these characteristics were important for the new American painting which matured in the late 1940s and early 1950s." - http://www.jacksonpollock.com/bio.shtml
http://manetas.com/pollock/
I came across a website where you can create digital pieces of abstract art with the use of your mouse. you can controll the strokes and movement of the 'brush' and change the colours to suit.
Thursday 6 February 2014
Paintings..
I again did a simple Google image search for 'abstract paintings' which came up with both famous painters work and then some of the work of ammeter painters who have taken the influence of painters work and produced their own pieces relating to the originals. The most interesting things with abstract paintings is the use of colour, the different colours all come together to create something that has a strong visual impact. The colour may or may not be carefully placed. The more abstract and mess, the more questions are raised about the meaning and significance and the more abstract and free the painting looks. Creating the bigger effect and visual impact.
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