This is the second set for my final photographs, and they were taken at an aquarium. The biggest challenge that I faced when shooting these photographs was there were too many people in the aquarium, and they were constantly running into my camera or blocking the lighting. I was able to solve this problem by communicating with one or two people to let them move a little. Another way I did was simply find a tank that there’s not much people. As a success, the reflection of the fish tanks were very strong, so I was able to capture reflection very easily without having to change lightings. I used the technique of depth of field to emphasize the layers of my photographs, and magnify the main character in my photograph. For the two photographs that showed both the reflection and the reality, the focus is on the reality and the reflection is blurred. Through this, I wanted to express the idea that people tend to see what they think they saw about nature water, but ignore the reality. So through emphasizing reality can let viewers understand that water isn’t always they way people saw it to be. The other two photographs portrays only the reflection, but they showed a close connection between human and nature by integrating the two. The photo on the top left looks like as if the main character is one of the fish, because they share the same color tone and they’re looking at each other. The photo on the bottom right looks like the plant is coming out of the main character’s nose. Through these interpretations, it could show a close relationship between human and nature. My intended idea when looking for inspiration (Claire Luxton) was to let the main character go into the water and leave half of her face out of the water and the other in. But because of limitations, I wasn’t able to do that. So instead, I tried to replicate this idea by using a reflection to show that.

Edward Muybridge:

Eadweard Muybridge is an British photographer born on April 9, 1830 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England and died on May 8, 1904 in Kingston upon Thames. Maybridge was born in a small town in the south of London, named Edward James Muggridge. In 1852, he moved to New York, where he became Edward Muggridge; In 1855, he moved to San Francisco, where he became E J.Muggridge. Then there is E J.Muygridge. Finally, Eadweard Muybridge. For Maybridge, sports are the core of his work and identity. (moma). Muybridge’s experiment of photographing motion began in 1872, when railroad giant Leland Stanford hired him to demonstrate that at specific moments in the gait of a racehorse, all four legs were simultaneously off the ground. His first attempt was unsuccessful because his camera did not have a fast shutter speed. Although he was acquitted for murdering his wife’s lover, he found it advantageous to travel in Mexico and Central America for many years, taking promotional photos for Union Pacific Railroad, a subsidiary of Stanford University. From 1884 to 1887, Muybridge conducted the most important photographic research on sports under the sponsorship of the University of Pennsylvania. These photos include photos of various activities of the human body, both dressed and naked, which will form a visual compilation of human movements for artists and scientists to use. Many of these photos were published in the book “Animal Movement: Electronic Photography of Continuous Stages of Animal Movement” in 1887. Muybridge continued to promote and publish his works until he retired and returned to his birthplace in 1900. (Britannica). Muybridge is known for his pioneering time-based photography of animal movements between 1878 and 1886, where he used multiple cameras to capture different positions in one step; There is also his zoologist microscope, which is a device for projecting and painting films from glass discs, predating the flexible perforated film used in cinematography. (wikipedia). Quote by Eadweard Muybridge: “We are going to find out everything that photography can teach us about animal movement.” (moma). 

Alexey Titarenko:

Alexey Titarenko was born in 1962 on Vasilyevsky Island in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). He started photography at the age of 9 in 1971 and graduated from Leningrad Public University with a degree in Journalism Photography in 1978. In the same year, Titalenko became a member of the independent photography club “Zerkalo” and held his first solo exhibition. Titalenko’s prints were carefully crafted in a dark room. Bleach and color grading add depth to his meticulous gray palette, giving each print a unique interpretation of his experiences and injecting personal and emotional visual features into his works. Titarenko gained international acclaim in the early 1990s for his “City of Shadows,” a series of photos of his hometown taken after the collapse of the Soviet Union, inspired by music by Dmitry Shostakovich and novels by Dostoevsky. Titalenko applied long-term exposure, intentional camera movement, and expert printmaking techniques to street photography, providing a powerful meditation on urban landscapes that are still filled with a painful history. Recently, this special beauty has been emphasized in the Havana series of prints exhibited at the Getty Museum. (Alexey Titarenko). In 2015, Titalenko’s first monograph “City is a Novel” was published by Damiani and was selected as one of the best photography collections of the year by The Wall Street Journal. Titarenko handcrafts each print in his darkroom, producing rich and subtle tones that make each work unique. This exquisite printing is particularly suitable for Titalenko’s long-term interest in water and its relationship with cities, showcasing the texture and reflectivity of snow, rain, clouds, and urban ports and waterways, and injecting moisture and light into each image. (nailya alexander gallery).

Citation:

In this final set of my work, I felt that I was able to photograph images that I initially wanted to. Even though I had gone through many unsuccessful tries, I kept trying new ideas and new ways to improve. Challenges were sometimes uncontrollable such as the condition and surroundings. For my practice set, I used the fish tank in school, but the condition was limited, so it did not turn out really good. Than in the experience at 798, I was able to capture some pictures that might be used in my final set. However, I tried to edit it and it still didn’t met my expectations because the background and theme are not concentrated. During the break, I went to an aquarium, but there were to many people so, again, I wasn’t able to create good photographs. During every set of experiment with photographing,  the lighting was the biggest challenge. I have to keep on changing the ISO because the photograph was either exposure or too dark. And some places I cannot control the lighting, so I have to use flashlights or other light sources to get the right light intensity. Than I thought of the idea to spread water on a mirror and let my main character lay on the mirror. This time, the photographs were getting to the point where I wanted them to be. As a photographer, I succeeded on keep trying new ideas and did not give up even if the results were not good. Especially the right one in my red tags, it has a different lighting with the other two pictures, which makes a really interesting contrast. I used depth of field to make the focus on Jungyoon in the mirror. The water on the mirror distorted Jungyoon’s reflection in the mirror, and looked a little different than her facial expression on the actual face. I took this photo by putting a big mirror on the floor and splashed some water on to it. Then I let Jungyoon to put her face on top of the mirror. The photograph was taken in a dark environment, but I used the flashlight on my phone to create lighting. The lighting is bright and the flashlight was placed on top of my camera. By looking at Claire Luxton’s work, I successfully combined the elements of people’s face and water. I considered her photographs of putting a person’s face one half in the water and the other on top. However, with limited conditions, I wasn’t able to do that so I used mirror to imitate it. Her photographs captures close up images of face which I also did for mine. This emphasize the feeling I wanted to express through exaggerating details of my photograph. Through this photo, I wanted to show the idea of a close relation between human and nature (water). She smiles when looking into the mirror, this reflects a feeling of  human looking at how water helped them in many ways and reveals a sense of gratified, showing a friendly connection between human and nature.

Yellow:

Green:

Red:

The photographs on my red tagged photos portrays Jungyoon laying on a mirror looking back at herself through mirror. All the photographs in the red tag section doesn’t appear in my other tags because I had many tries throughout the project. So after these tries, my last try turned out to be the best.

The photographs I took did not appeared to be want I wanted due to the limited surroundings (would be better at 798). These photographs were taken through the fish tank reflection, for improvements, I would try different lightings to make the photo cleaner. I would employ side lighting to emphasize the details and enhance the texture and depth of the photos. Applying rule of third would also make the photographs more appealing. The photographs I took so far are messy, which weren’t effective enough. All the photos reveals a different facial expression, and the focus in the second photograph is on the plants (different from the other three where the focus is on the main character). The blurred one didn’t look much appealing, so for improvements I would put sharp focus on the main character. Taking various photographs by trying different ISO can hep me to find the best combination that captures my subjects effectively.

The photographer I’m analyzing is called Claire Luxton, she is a multidisciplinary artist from the UK, engaged in photography, immersive installations, and poetry creation. Her works always reflects her natural environment of rural studio located in East Sussex. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree from Goldsmiths University in London, Lukston’s practice cultivated a strong sense of asceticism, which quickly gained her recognition. Her dynamic works explore the subtle balance between humans and nature, captivating audiences with color, intrigue, joy, and uncertainty. Her works have been collected internationally and exhibited from London to Singapore, including at the Art Fair London and Basel. Lukston’s most famous commissions are public art projects at Crown Estate, Westminster and Westfield Hall Forum, as well as collaborations with brands such as Hendrix, Wedgwood, Intercontinental and L’Occitane. (https://www.claireluxtonart.com/biography).

The photograph I’m analyzing is the left one. This photograph portraits a close image of a woman’s face, half in the water and half above. With the reflection of the water, the photograph was able to create a full face projection. The main focus is the face in the middle since it takes up most of the spaces in the photograph, and it’s what Claire Luxton intended to put the focus on. I like how this photograph uses water reflection to structure a woman’s face. The use of colors are bright which grabs my attention to look at its details. It reveals to me strong connection between human and nature since the main character is integrated with water. The color tone is cold, might be a symbol of calm and mysterious feeling, the whole image’s color tone express a powerless and unresistant theme. This photograph includes the techniques of depth of field and framing. The use of these techniques creates a more visually stereoscopic, making the photograph seems to have emotions in it. This photo also uses rule of third as it puts the main character in the middle of the photo tp emphasize its important existence. The use of lighting is bright, usually the light comes from one side of the photo to create reflection. The main character in the picture is a woman, it might be an assumption that it express feminism. Through the woman’s facial expression, it reveals a feeling being bound and a desirous of freedom. This photograph express a complex feeling, with many mixed emotions inside, expressing a feeling of longing to express but being powerless. This image inspires me to create photographs of reaction on water, the photograph by Claire Luxton, to me, showed a close connection between human and nature since the woman in her photo is nearly submerged by water. Through her inspiration, I wanted to explore photographs that express the theme of connection between nature and human.

Vision:

I wants to create photographs of the reflection on water. Similar to Naoya Hatakeyama’s photographs, I prefer to capture human figures with water. I like to photograph with a soft lighting and putting the focus on one object. I want my audience to feel that water is an important part in the world and visually make a connection with water. I would use techniques such as depth of field and framing to the photos look like they have layers, and these techniques can help me to emphasize the main objects that I want the audience to focus on. I am aiming to capture photographs of reflection of people by water reflection that portrays the theme of  a relation with the nature of water.

Statement of Intent:

The working title of my project is “Life Through Water”. I want my audience to feel a strong connection to water. I will get inspiration and develop my ideas by looking for photographs by Naoya Hatakeyama who showed interest in taking photographs of water and its reflection. I also wanted to mimic the style of Claire Luxton, who also creates photos related to human figure and water. She uses high saturated colors which I wanted to do in my project.