Water
A number of photographers and filmmakers have made use of the physical, visual or symbolic properties of water in their work. Jem Southam recorded the effects of natural erosion by water in his series, Rockfalls, River Mouths and Ponds. For her project George's Bath, Corinna Kern documented the often unusual and varied uses of the bath, each time from the same vantage point. In the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky, rain, rivers and puddles are used as reoccurring motifs to explore movement, depth and change. Investigate appropriate sources and produce your own response to Water.
Spider diagram of initial thoughts on water and will focus on the movement of water. With one aspect to focus on being water drops and also at different viscosity, I will try it with clear water first and then colour the water with food colouring. Another aspect could be streams of water from taps, showers or hoses and manipulate or interrupt the flow of water to see what I could create. Another aspect is also the byproducts of water from manipulating the temperature with getting ice and how water freezes into it and its formation as snow and cubes, with also steam and it how it distorts light and vision and how that would affect the camera also how the condensation forms on objects and the water drops that are formed after. These are the aspects that I will do some experimentation with all of them and see what one I like and has the most potential to be developed further or combined together.
John Grant
The Language of Water
John Grant seems to have a body of water and proceeded to inject some kind of dye or ink to see its movement and he seems to have done it in various ways to get different kind of movements. These photos also resemble the psychological test with the black and white images and being asked what you see. I will take the idea of dye or ink and mix it with water and then have water drops of that mixture to get the trails they leave when they go down a window or some kind of pane and perhaps do it down different materials to see if there are any different movement. With these photos the camera is only able to see the movement of the ink in the water and the abstraction that comes from that movement. The cameras framing is also limited as we can't see the whole body of water just a part of it meaning we cant see how the ink was injected and how the rest of the ink has moved. There would of been challenges with getting the right kind of ink or dye to put into the water as if they got a liquid not viscous enough it will just fall and mix quickly where as if the liquid is too viscous it will be too slow moving and will not create the images that he was going for so finding the right liquid would of been a challenge and also manipulating the ink or dye when in the water as it will be difficult to move it how you want with if you try to move it, it could mix and lose the effect he was going for and what also took a long time is restarting the process with the images shown the body of water seems to be large and so replacing the water and cleaning the tub/vessel that holds the water of any remaining ink/dye would also be difficult and long process.
First Photoshoot
This photoshoot was half successful with I was able to take photos of water trails but it could only be done vividly with darker food colouring with the lighter food colouring it is much harder to see. The photos of the dark food colouring came out reasonably well with some of the photos being out of focus but the ones that are in focus they came out well with you being able to see the drop plus the trial. When I do it again I will add more of the lighter food colouring with less water to try and make them more visible and potentially use black card where I am taking a photo in the background to give it more chance of showing through. I might also add glycerin to the water to make it more viscous and potentially more vivid with the food colouring it will also allow for the water drop to move more slowly down the glass plane which will allow for more time on taking the photos and more of a chance to get better photos. This work relates to Grants work with the idea of using ink/food colouring to make the movement of water more visible and unique, however I have kind of done the opposite of what Grant did with him having a body of water and seeing how the ink moves in it where I mixed the food colouring and water and looked at its movement together so these photos relate to Grants in contrast. As I am using plain food colouring to get the coloured water effect and not a viscous liquid that Grant seems to have used I can't replicate what he did but I can do something similar with turning the coloured water more viscous with glycerin water.
Threshold Concept 6
"Photographs rely on chance, more or less. Chance is very important in photography. You can fight chance, tolerate it or embrace it. To some extent, all photographs are the result of chance processes."
When dealing with water and particularly movement of water you do have to rely on chance a lot, with you can't predict to movement of water accurately most of the time so when taking photos of moving water the photos you take are one of a kind as you could get similar photos but you will never have to exact same movement of water in which you took the photo of. So chance is something you have to deal with when photographing water with to get the photos you want of water you can only repeat the process and taking photos of water to get your desired results.
When dealing with water and particularly movement of water you do have to rely on chance a lot, with you can't predict to movement of water accurately most of the time so when taking photos of moving water the photos you take are one of a kind as you could get similar photos but you will never have to exact same movement of water in which you took the photo of. So chance is something you have to deal with when photographing water with to get the photos you want of water you can only repeat the process and taking photos of water to get your desired results.
Edited First Photoshoot
The editing has allowed for some of the more harder to see trails and drops to become more vivid and allows for more variation when I take more of these kind of photos. To refine these photos I could create a slideshow, collage or overlay images together to create an effect of submersion with having overlays of the water and changing their opacity to create a layering effect like looking under water.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Light on Water
These light on water photos were done with a body of moving water and a camera with a high aperture and long shutter speed for a long exposure he was able to take these photos. I will use this idea along with the premise of the photos at the end of my first photoshoot and see if I can get more of the movement of the water and what it will look like in different colour. Also I will go to Sutcliffe park and do this with the lake/pond there and see if I can create a similar effect. He does shake the camera and manipulate light sources which me might of done on multiple different bodies of water to get the light on water photos, also as he has taken them in black and white while doing this you can see a clear definition with the water and light on it, in which I will try doing some colour and some black and white and even to edit the coloured photos into black and white and compare it with the ones taken in black and white. I will also seeing of slightly shaking my camera will add to the effect that I want on my photos.
Jen Southam
The Seventh Winter
I went to visit the Jen Southam exhibition at Huxely-Parlour and it was nice to see the photos he took on the floodplain and using the water, wildlife, foliage and environment to make the photos. It is the of seven years of photos of the same floodplain but when you look at them you would not be able to guess that fact as all the photos look like they have been taken around a short time span instead of a long time span.
I focused on the water in the photos and more specifically the movement of the water when there is grass in it blocking its path and seeing how the water moves around a variety of objects and also the natural movement of the water of it going down the floodplain. The photos themselves aesthetically pleasing with the feeling of the photos being very relaxed and it is very easy to just look at them. The water also takes on that feeling with the water itself is showing no big movement like waves where you can tell distinctly where the water is going but here it is very hard to tell where the water is going with it creating these little waves or dents that change the directions of the water giving the whole water plain a very unique look. These photos are similar to the light on water photos by Ralph Eugene Meatyard with the subtle movements of the water creating a similar effect that light on water photos have. To develop my I am also going to use the food colouring and put splotches in different places around a sink run both of the taps on the sink and take photos of the water moving as it will change colour with the water moving over the parts with food colouring.
2nd Experiment
I used various food colourings and put it around my sink and ran the taps to run through it to see the flow of water in different colours. The darker colours did stay longer so I could take more time taking the photos unlike the lighter colours that wash away very easily and require some luck in getting the focus and zoom correct before it disappears. The darker colour when running through did look good as you can see the concentration of colouring the water as it runs where the lighter colours it blended in as a whole and when I used multiple colours at the same time you could see the different flows of water in the different colours creating unique photos.
Edited Photos
The edited photos have come out really well with the edit allowing for the movement of the water to become more clear and the blending of the food colouring with the multiple ones seeing the movement of the water and its blending with the other colouring.
School Experiment
In school there are water fountains and i thought to use it to take photos of a single stream. The fountain I used was dysfunctional with the water being sent further than it is supposed to and that allowed the water stream to split into drops which I could take photos of as well as the stream. Some of the photos look good with seeing the drops and the movement of the stream. To develop I am going to put food colouring directly on the taps so when it runs the whole flow will be a different colour and when I do both taps at the same time in different colours you should be able to see where the two streams mix.
2nd School Experiment
This experiment is practically identical to John Grant but I tried various colours other then black
When it came to doing this using the darker inks allowed for easier photography as it can clearly show the spread in the water and the lighter inks were more of a challenge. In comparison to Grants photos I did a variety of positions where he looks like he stayed more close to mid range for the photos. using multiple colours was interesting when using the black ink as well as you could see the mix of the two inks and how they blended in the water.
2nd Experiment Edited Photos
Editing these photos have allowed for the colours mixed and unseen before to come out and show themselves to create unique imagery.
Further development
This edit is simply the same photo copied just rotated 180 degrees and placed either above or below the original. some have blended well where other you can tell where the photos join. I might join all of them together to make one big collage. To create some parallel imagery and alter the perception the water and ink.
This is the idea for a collage with having the images from a stream of sort to flow through. I will try to make multiple versions using different images to see what kind of streams I can create.
This is an idea that follows the flow to a centre similar to tree branches but the end result not really working that well.
Park Photos
These photos are meant to be a response to light on water but I could not get the same effect which I thinks is because he edited the original photos in a way to just show where the light hits the water.
To get these images I edited them using the gradient map on photoshop after other usual edits to highlight the light on the water.
Fractal Experiment
This is an experiment that I will follow with making some sort of fractal or collage.
This video shows that contrast with the subject and method with photos trying to make something still while water is something that try's not to stay still with putting it in a video to show movement of a still images of a subject that is not still, it is full of contradiction.
I used audio of water like sounds to add to the affect of the video.
I used audio of water like sounds to add to the affect of the video.
For new experiments I could try and create a photogram with water/liquid and see a direct print of the movement of the liquid. I could also print out the edited park photos and re photograph them in a darker environment while slightly shaking the camera to get simulate more motion of water. Another could be taking photos directly through water like having the water tank and some printed images put the images on one side of the tank and have the lens put up against the other side and take photos directly through it. All of these experiment have the still and not still concept with with all having something moving and always something still.
Controlled Assessment Plan
For the three days of making I have I plan to have a video installation in the drama studio for more immersion with something similar to surround sound speakers for the feeling of water which will be up on the third day but for the two previous days I will be making sure I have the video for the installation.
Prep: I need to book equipment and room for the installation e.g speakers, projector
Day 1 and 2: I will be making the video for the installation.
Day 3: The installation will be set up and take video and photos of it.
Prep: I need to book equipment and room for the installation e.g speakers, projector
Day 1 and 2: I will be making the video for the installation.
Day 3: The installation will be set up and take video and photos of it.