James Casebere - Arches [2016]
James Casebere
Visual artist, James Casebere, explores the technique of illusion of space and environment through intelligently photographing his table-top sculptures of internal spaces, geographical locations and buildings. as clear in this image, his work is life-like, highly realistic and creates an atmosphere enhanced by the use of lighting and shadows in every piece he creates. I like the soft texture juxtaposition to what one would think are hard, jagged rocks. This sort of visual manipulation is often what excites me most about photography, and perhaps I can make a similar sort of textural illusion in my work, when I decide what sort of space and environment I want to create.
In my research into James Casebere and his style of work, the most interesting and notable description I came across was that his pieces are "constructed photography". This phrase has stuck with me, and I feel it relates highly to this project, Windows on the world. I am not only constructing a physical box to display the world I want to present, but by constructing the photographic outcome, through angles, lighting, motion and animation, what I produce is not the box itself, but the "constructed" photographic evidence of my created environment.
ExPeRimEnTAtiOn
Over the course of day 1 I experimented a lot with lighting, discovering different ways to create illusions of depth and space, as well as what colours and strengths of directional light make various atmospheres.
[1] In the first image, mixing the use of a red bike light with a regular torch covered by a blue acetate sheet. I like the police lights/crime scene vibe that is evokes through this lighting, and I could explore this more in the narrative I choose for my stop motion animation sequence.
[2] Next, I explored the use of shadows created from stencil-like cutouts. I found that this was harder to photograph, especially as the room I was in was not particularly dark, and so I went under the table, which further limited my space and movement to capture the scene. This is something I should consider when filming and photographing my final Window on the World box environment. The shadows produced were strong, however, I just needed to photograph them from a higher angle to really see the outlines on the clear background sheet.
[3] Lastly, I experimented with depth in a less conventional way. This was not something I would consider for my final piece, however it was interesting to see how far apart the layers of paper had to be to create decent shadows and illusions of depth. I aimed for the "looking down a rabbit hole" illusion, however the distance between the sheets was not really big enough to be impactful. I could develop this as part of my box environment, however only in a small section, as it wouldn't make a great scene as a whole.
** Please see reflection page for finished animation as a video, in which the speed of the video is slower, presenting the real essence of the stop-motion effect **
Juilen Vallée
Julien Vallee is a graphic designer from Canada, whose work follows a very studio based setup and provokes energetic vibes. Vallée Duhamel is, in fact, a studio founded by Julien Vallée and coworker, Eve Duhamel. Together they specialise in videos, illustrations and visuals. [source: https://www.behance.net/valleeduhamel]
What interests me most about his work is the overlapping use of first hand image and photography with illustration and graphics. This factor, which may be considered to make the environment Vallee creates less realistic, gives an authentic twist, and for me as a viewer, I believe the collation of objects, words and articles in the piece gives a great look through the window of his world. I really enjoy the cartoon-esque aspects of this work, alongside the bright use of colour, bold, harsh shapes and the general composition that contributes to the illusion of scale here. What I want to take from this and apply to my own project is the use of real objects/materials in hand with those out of context inside a small box - I think the dual use of real and fake objects would heighten the aspects of visual illusion and confusion. I also plan to take inspiration from Vallee's use of bright colour, strong, clean, studio setups and simples shapes arranged in interesting ways.
DeVeLOpiNg A nArraTiVe
After experimenting with lighting and shadow techniques, I moved on to develop a narrative or story that could accompany the spooky atmosphere I was hoping to create within the box. I also decided to incorporate the light as part of the set for best results, positioning it underneath tissue paper in a back corner to resemble fire, or dangerous light at the back of a tunnel or cave. To emphasise the scale I wanted to portray, I draw a pretty basic cartoon silhouette, that also casts an interesting shadow, really heightening the size and dimensions of this cave environment.
I was really inspired by James Casebere's haunting atmospheres, and tried to create something a bit more obviously dangerous and ominous, rather than his hauntingly silent, chilling miniature locations
PrODuCtiOn ProCeSS and DevELopMeNt
In the production process of my box environment, I adapted the space from my initial concept of an unearthly minimalistic land, consisting of mounds/hills of cereal and various hanging objects, to a more refined and realistic set of a living room. This allowed me to experiment more with the lighting and shadows more intricately - something I was really interested in - as the environment was more simply constructed.
As can be seen from the difference between my initial cereal mounds design and prototype, to the first assembly of my cereal living room, the layout and atmosphere of the world develops from bright, empty and minimal, to dark, homely and cosy, yet with underlying ominous darkness, emphasised by the red lights that I added later.
I chose to work with cereal because I had looked into using other grains such as rice, or even dried beans, however thinking back on the project brief, the world had to reflect something about us, and to be straight, cereal my favourite food. Thus, the inside of the cereal box environment is a world which I visit every morning - in this case, I have just added the fantasy of what goes on in the box before breakfast.
Continuing from my desire to experiment with the potential of lighting techniques, I further experimented with shadows, creating detailed text that reflects onto the sparse wall at the back of the set. "Weetabix and chill?" is a play on the current popular expression "Netflix and chill?", used jokingly on social media. Combining wordplay and visual humour is something I wish I developed more, in retrospect to the rest of this project, as it is something I, myself, enjoy and would like to attempt in the future. The detailed word shadows was an idea actually inspired by the work of Dan Tobin Smith, that I considered in my research. I thought that producing an anamorphosis effect on or within this small scale box would be too challenging (for now), and so developed his use of lettering in my own style and format. In a way, the way in which the words only display clearly when the light is shone from a specific angle lends to Tobin Smith's methods of illusion.
Dan Tobin Smith
Dan Tobin Smith is an experienced photographer, focusing on his strengths in still life and installation photography. The most notable technique that Tobin Smith uses is that of anamorphosis - the letters in his pieces are only visible from a particular viewpoint, and otherwise look distorted, unaligned. While this is an incredibly difficult effect to achieve, Tobin Smith succeeds consistently, and has been working on various letters over the past 8 years, building up a portfolio of 17 different letters so far commissioned by The Creative Review. Looking at Tobin Smith's project on the whole, it is interesting to see what sort of different locations and environments he chooses to create these large-scale constructions in. The image above, shows "R", one of the only letters to be structures to be created inside - even more, the only photograph in which we can see the dimensions, shape and boundaries of the room. This adds an additional level of accuracy and illusion to the piece, because the objects appear to completely juxtapose the scale of the letter "R" overlaying. I like this idea of distorting scale and space, and so I plan to create the illusion of a world inside the world we already live in, further inspired by Tobin Smith's use of everyday objects.