COMPLEMENTARY STUDIES: WATER BASED IMAGERY

TITLE: AQUARIUS

For the next 10 weeks, I have chosen for my complementary studies is Water Based imagery which i am interested to learn using a camera and video underwater in pools and the sea. 

Timetable:

1/03/12- 1pm-4pm (FASHION ROOM) T2.7

8/03/12- (POOL TRIP) 1-4 bikini- Marjon uni. I was unable to attend this shoot as i was really unwell so i had drift along when it came down to the review session to see what the class had produced.

15/03/12- IMAGE REVIEW SESSION- T1.12

22/03/12- GROUP A: 1pm-2:30 pool session

29/03/12- IMAGE REVIEW SESSION

- EASTER HOLIDAYS-

26/04/12- Beach Shoot- Wembury- Wetsuit and shoes

3/05/12- TUTORIALS

10/05/12- TUTORIALS

17/05/12- GROUP CRIT ( DEADLINE)

Above, shows the timetable of what is happening over the next 10 weeks. In our introductory brief, we were given areas to consider for our project which are:

1. Stills or moving image

2. Sports/Documents/Fine art/Environmental fashion

3. Underwater or Surface/land

4. Essential kit

5. Locations

6. Health and safety

POOL SESSION

1. Sport

- Snorkels 

2. Fish Eye Lens

3. Auto Focus

4. Time consuming taking shots

5. Flash

- Shoot in the upward position

- Exhale going down to the bottom of the pool

- Always have your flash ON- saturates color, moody shots 

I have looked at a few artists/photographers and national geographic videos that I was quite fond of; as i am a Fine Art student, i wanted to explore the depths of different sides of Art and found this module fascinating as it involves experimenting with different medias in the water/surface. 

The first artist that I found interesting is Sophie Lewis who is an underwater director exploring internal landscapes. 'Water Consciousness'; Sophie explores in her practice the depths of our relationship with water. In its nature, her work is two fold: as a teacher and as an artist. 

" I like getting lost, because I love finding out where I am".

The subject moves away from the ethereal and float imagery visually associated with water and offers instead a more grounded and weightless sense of being. The concept of her photographs show that the water invites us to surrender to a profound sense of timelessness and presents us with the possibility that these shifts, with their deep sense of falling and sinking into being are comparable to experiences of consciousness experiences centuries ago? Fueled in a frenetic way and unsettled way, without travel and telecommunications, daily life; handcrafting of objects and generations of established communities, (loot and past).

The fear of falling seeks to make apparent connections between the past, acts of crafting and submergence. 

I love the way the artist has interpreted life models that look as though they are standing in a surfaced room but with a bleak background. It's more remarkable that it is done in a tank with water effects being underwater. For the pool shoots, I managed to get a few good shots of reflections, abstractions of bubbles and models posing underwater.  Below, is one of my favorite shots as it involve two things: reflection and contrast of the photograph. I made the photograph look more vivid in light as i wanted to have a figure shape  in the water. This reminds me of Lewis's work but in colour as the stillness of the figure is interacting with the water surroundings. 

The second artist that i looked at which is my area of knowledge in Fine Art; is Wolf Gang Bloch who is a surfer and artist. His art reveals much about the man who creates it. But the hints are subtle:

" the subdued palette, the modest and unexpected materials; all utilized to reduce traditional seascapes to their essence and in the process imbue them with compelling intensity. Sublime and terribly romantic."

Everyday contact with pure nature sets the direction of his art. With the help of colour and natural texture of surfaces he creates an endless ocean and ideal wave lines. Bloch's idea ''cuts'' surface of the canvas, like a surfboard cuts the wave. Surf art began to be considered as a serious art. 

" The rich colours and the texture of the land, I love nature and the ocean, the way it smells and the way the breeze feels on my skin. I kind of stumbled across it. I used to pain the obvious line up scenes with perfect waves, perfect lightning, palm trees etc. Out of frustration one day I painted over of my paintings, created two fields of colour. the brush createda  small mark that resembled a wave right between the two blocks of colour. I was immediately impressed by what I saw... Now I see waves all over the place, cracks on concrete, wood, tile etc". 

As I am doing Fine Art, I produced a piece of artwork involving layers of colour on a canvas using oil paints. The painting shows an abstract seascape, i went over and over with colours as i stumbled across what i wanted to intend to do with the piece. It reminds me of Rothko as the layers of blues and greens link into one another and the final bit which is on the right which shows the blends of blues and whites and  that show the waves; and the golds shows the sand bed.

Below, shows a recent photograph that I took on Bantham Beach, it was a really stormy day and the waves were exciting to shoot with my camera. I bent down on my knees to get the wave crashing onto a rock at a wide angle approach, in editing I highlighted the contrast in the wave 'splash' and the background dark to get the dramatic effect.

These 5 photographs demonstrate my thought and skill in producing these experiments using my camera half in and out of the water. The first photograph on the top left shows someone pulling down the balloon under the water with a light shining through it. These photographs show reflection and contrast.  

When it came down to experimenting in the pool at Marjohn University; I wanted to look at the aspects of abstract photography, so that meant looking at macro pieces in the water e.g, bubbles, light, reflections and shapes. The first experiments that I did were the light and shape in capturing a balloon in and out of the water. The camera that i used was a Panasonic lumix which was actually decent, able to get half the lens in and out of the water was really interesting to experiment with.