Photomontage: Project Summary

Over the course of the project I was able to learn about the use of perspective not only in photographs, but in general as well. It was fascinating learning about the origins of the technique and how the creators came up with it. 

To me, the most challenging aspect of the project was narrowing down the endless amounts of photos I took. Sorting through the literal thousands took a while and would've been better if I had a clearer vision of what I wanted when I went to take the pictures.

Overall, I found this project to be one of the most creative and fun in terms of the subject matter and arranging of the collage.  

Photomontage: Final Collage

Here is the final collage in all its glory!!!

Photomontage: Refined Collages

Some refined collages I put together real quick to get a sense of the setting and start working with the photos I took down in Orange Beach. 

Photomontage: Test Collages

Photomontage: Masters of Illusion Reflection

The Masters of Illusion video deals with the topic of perspective and how using various angles can create a completely different outcome from the previous position. To better understand perspective, the video takes a look back on when the technique of perspective was first used back during the Renaissance period where many artists such as Brunelleschi, Da Vinci and Raphael established these methods that are still being used today.

What I found to be most insightful of this video was how perspective technique is really as simple as managing line placement and making sure that your lines are cohesive. Being able to correctly manipulate perspective through photography can be just as easy as drawing, as long as you're able to identify parts of the photograph that can be juxtaposed.

Photomontage: Photography Changes Everything

In "Photography Changes Everything", Marvin Heiferman suggests that photography has become an integral part of society allowing individuals to capture both pivotal and insignificant moments of life. Everything from Wars to Selfies, the meaning behind a picture is in the eyes of the beholder and that many people view "what makes a good photograph" different. For instance, Heiferman says that if you ask a chef what makes a good photo, they might think that if it captures food at its finestest (and freshest) then it qualifies as an acceptable image.

Some of the most vital points that Heiferman covers in the book are six distinct categories how photography changes:

1.) What we want - photography allows us to fulfill our desires and define our needs
2.) What we see - photography shows us things that we can't usually see because it's either too fast or slow, big or small
3.) Who we are - how we represent ourselves as individuals to others
4.) What we do - allows us to follow impulses and curiosity
5.) Where we go - we can see things that we never thought was humanly possible, such as the ocean floor, space, micro-organisms
6.) What we remember - a photo acts as an archive that allows us to tap that part of our memory banks in order to recall a certain experience of our life

Photomontage: Setting

Right as we were assigned this project, I knew exactly where I wanted to take the pictures. Shooting down in Orange Beach, Alabama was amazing. The vibrant colors of the sky mixed with the vast textures of the water collided to create an incredible setting for the project.

Photomontage: On Photography Reflection

Susan Sontag offers a unique way of how photography acts as a way of capturing experiences and ultimately help to collect insight into various cultures around the world. In addition to that, Sontag makes claims about how no matter what type of photographs your taking whether they are meant to capture an ideal or the sheer beauty of something, "there is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera" meaning that the camera will not hold anything back in terms of what the viewer may or may not want to see. Sontag manages to bring up interesting topics concerning the use of photography rather than the form of it. I think it's fascinating to note how photography has become so vital in the preservation of experience as well as how photography itself has transitioned from being used solely by the wealthy and professionals to how everyone today can be considered an amateur photographer if they have a smartphone.

Photomontage: A Viewer’s Guide to Looking at Photography Reflection

After reading "A Viewer's Guide to Looking at Photography", I feel as though my understanding for examining photographs has changed dramatically. At first, I used to initially look at just who was in the picture and where it was taken at, but now after digesting what James Brooke pointed out that has all changed. Now, I look for the meaning in all of the contents of the image. Everything from shapes to colors, to facial expressions and lines. Brooke goes on to state that after the observation of the photos, how we interpret and make sense of what is taking place in the image is open to any sort of perception as long as it has validity. With that you need to take into consideration the logic of your findings, and are asking "why" of everything you detected in the photos. A strong point that Brooke mentions is that the first step of the four-step process of analyzing photos, Description, is the most important because it forces you to come to conclusions about the photo. The other steps (Formal Analysis, Interpretation and Evaluation) could essentially be gone away with because there will always be a certain form to photographs that rely on the description. I would agree that the first time you look at a picture is the most pivotal in terms of how your brain is able to capture the essence that is situation on the surface of the image. You look at the picture and instantaneously tell who's in it, what's going on, where are they, are the people/figures showing some sort of emotion, were they in the middle of an action, etc. These types of questions can be answered in a matter of seconds just by scanning the image.

Photomontage: Written Description

For the third project of the course, we are to demonstrate the relationship of time and space through photography specifically by the method of collage/montaging. The result of that is to create an understanding of a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional area and showcase the perspective.