Year 10 Assessment
Disguse
Lucas Blalock, Tessa sitting, 2016
In this image, I can see a blue coat hanging over the back of a wooden chair, and parts of a picture cut out or photoshopped on-top of it. This image is a portrait thought it is distorted - the coat takes the shape of this persons torso and the positioning of the picture of the arms gives the composition a human shape. Above the torso is a cropped image of this persons face that has been cut in a way to only show the subjects face through curved lines. In the background, there is a plain white wall, a small pillar and a wooden plank, creating the idea that there is a set or backdrop somewhere in the room that this image was taken. The compositions demeanour and body language show that it might be relaxed but the facial expression of this form suggests that it might be in some discomfort as if it were lost in thought over something unpleasant or depressing.
As said before, I think this image is the result of combining two images together digitally on photoshop, or at least this is what I would do to create a similar picture. To take a picture like this, I would take a picture of some cloth or material or clothing placed on-top of a chair in front of a plain background. Personally, I would not have any props or structures in the background as I wouldn't want to distract the attention from the main portrait. Next I would take the exact same picture but with a person sitting on the chair instead of the coat/cloth. Next I would import them into photoshop and put the first image I took (of the empty chair) on a layer underneath the second one. Then I would lower the opacity down of the image on top so I'm able to see both of them together. From there i would start highlighting parts of the person that I would want to keep (e.g., arms, a leg, face). After removing the other parts of this image, I would select the section of the layer with the face and move it to another layer, where I can then draw a pattern with the pen tool and burn the face onto it so I can create the same effect as the original face without doing anything to the arms or leg.
Initially, this image made me feel confused, as I did not yet know that it was edited and at first glance thought it was actually a person hiding behind the coast of chair. After looking at it for a while, I've decided I like the it and am a fan of the processes that I think were used in the creation of this final product. Even praising the picture, I still don't think this is the best way to frame this image, I think that the background isn't very appealing. The pillar, wires or plank really serve any purpose in this portrait as I feel the attention should be directed to the main subject so that the viewer can see that the image is not what it first seems. If I were to ask the photographer three questions, one would be about what the process Blalock used from thinking of this image to the post production of it - Was it photoshop that he had used or did he cut these two picture out by hand? Another would be if he knew the person he was photographing and if this place was somewhere he knew? I would want to know if there is any emotional meaning or connection with him and his work. Lastly, I'd ask about what the purpose of the backdrops props are. Were they from a previous photo? Did he just have wires and wooden plants lying around? Why didn't he move them?
After researching Lucas Blalock, I have learned that this image is from his 2017 book called Low Comedy. I've also learnt that he did use photoshop for not only this image but also others from the same publication. He tries to "use the dumbest tools, the ones where the computer does the least", knowing this context behind his work and his attempts to turn his basic photography into visual jokes like poorly drawn meat on a cutting board next to the original food, I definitely find like this photographer more than I did before due to his way of looking at his own work and turning it into a joke. He has said he has an interest in "the sense of possibility that hangs on when you do something plainly...". This image relates to the theme of disguise as it hides the typical subject of a portrait behind strange and abnormal effects as if to conceal the original meaning of this photography and subvert it into a joke.
As said before, I think this image is the result of combining two images together digitally on photoshop, or at least this is what I would do to create a similar picture. To take a picture like this, I would take a picture of some cloth or material or clothing placed on-top of a chair in front of a plain background. Personally, I would not have any props or structures in the background as I wouldn't want to distract the attention from the main portrait. Next I would take the exact same picture but with a person sitting on the chair instead of the coat/cloth. Next I would import them into photoshop and put the first image I took (of the empty chair) on a layer underneath the second one. Then I would lower the opacity down of the image on top so I'm able to see both of them together. From there i would start highlighting parts of the person that I would want to keep (e.g., arms, a leg, face). After removing the other parts of this image, I would select the section of the layer with the face and move it to another layer, where I can then draw a pattern with the pen tool and burn the face onto it so I can create the same effect as the original face without doing anything to the arms or leg.
Initially, this image made me feel confused, as I did not yet know that it was edited and at first glance thought it was actually a person hiding behind the coast of chair. After looking at it for a while, I've decided I like the it and am a fan of the processes that I think were used in the creation of this final product. Even praising the picture, I still don't think this is the best way to frame this image, I think that the background isn't very appealing. The pillar, wires or plank really serve any purpose in this portrait as I feel the attention should be directed to the main subject so that the viewer can see that the image is not what it first seems. If I were to ask the photographer three questions, one would be about what the process Blalock used from thinking of this image to the post production of it - Was it photoshop that he had used or did he cut these two picture out by hand? Another would be if he knew the person he was photographing and if this place was somewhere he knew? I would want to know if there is any emotional meaning or connection with him and his work. Lastly, I'd ask about what the purpose of the backdrops props are. Were they from a previous photo? Did he just have wires and wooden plants lying around? Why didn't he move them?
After researching Lucas Blalock, I have learned that this image is from his 2017 book called Low Comedy. I've also learnt that he did use photoshop for not only this image but also others from the same publication. He tries to "use the dumbest tools, the ones where the computer does the least", knowing this context behind his work and his attempts to turn his basic photography into visual jokes like poorly drawn meat on a cutting board next to the original food, I definitely find like this photographer more than I did before due to his way of looking at his own work and turning it into a joke. He has said he has an interest in "the sense of possibility that hangs on when you do something plainly...". This image relates to the theme of disguise as it hides the typical subject of a portrait behind strange and abnormal effects as if to conceal the original meaning of this photography and subvert it into a joke.
Response
I'm going to take 20 photos of self portraits and portraits in response to Tessa Sitting. I will be using a camera and tripod to take these images of me and the empty chairs to then edit together on photoshop in different compositions, with different colours and using different tools. I will be changing the body parts shown in each picture (e.g., a single leg, hands without forearms and different angles for the faces).
After I had taken all of my pictures I went into photoshop and chose 3 to turn into portraits. I took pictures of my face and put them on the layer above the photo of the chair, after that created a new layer in between the two and started to scribble around my face to then resize and create a clipping mask.
This picture is my least favourite of the three as I feel like I did too much for it. The original had a lot of clothes on; the jumper, jacket and jeans and I tried to use the grey jacket as something cover completely with the picture of me, which I now regret because I feel like compared to my face, my torso is really visible and that is not the effect I wanted for this photo. This picture was hard to take because it was set up in the block 1 airlocks during the time inbetween lessons so I had people walking in front and around the camera while I was setting up and taking this image.
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For this image, have a lot of the same issues that I have with the first of these three but I think that the large amount of scribbling on the torso works with it better as the hoodie on the chair and the hoodie on me are the same colour so naturally they will blend together quite easily. I also think the two angles work well together to create a good response to Blalack's work, thought it might be have very strange proportions.
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Finally, my favourite of the three works so well because it is a lot like Lucas Blalack's photo in the sense that the lines on the clipping mask are a lot more scarce and spaced out. I also think this one is so great because the background and foreground are barely noticeable until you look past the picture drawn on to the top of it. I like that the canvas that I used as a background for the portrait isn't covering the whole frame so it also acts as a mid-ground, giving the viewer more to look at in the picture other than its original subject - I think this is very similar to what Blalack did in Tessa Sitting.
My method was to open a new canvas in photoshop and import the chair picture I wanted to use then on a layer on top of that import a picture of my face. I then lower the opacity for the picture of my face so I can resize and crop it on to the part of the chair picture to emulate the look of a human body. On a new layer over the first two, I use the brush tool to draw over the picture of me and create a scribbling pattern like Lucas Blalock had done in the picture I am responding to. When I am happy with my drawing, I will then drag the layer with the picture of me above the layer with the drawing. Finally, I double click the top layer and select "Create clipping mask", this will cause the image with the clipping mask to only appear over the layer underneath. Below this is a step-by-step I made using some of the pictures I didn't use for the final three favourites.