Justin Leon

I have exciting plans for this next assignment. My favorite part of it is the focus I have chosen; Man vs. Nature. I want to attack this focus as metaphorically as possible. My plan is to create a piece of art out of a photo, with the subject purely being nature, it will be printed on a type of aluminum, steel, or metal. I want to really emphasize the contrast of nature and man. To gain more inspiration on this assignment and my focus, I have been researching and following artist: https://www.nicolasruel.com/en/new_york.php . His work is primarily printed on stainless steel, and I want to portray that contrast as well.

Here are a couple of photographs I have taken with this project in mind: (unedited)

This past week was a small success for the assignment. Printing went relatively smoothly, only a couple of issues with matte paper. The printing settings can get extensive and with that, confusing. There is a lot of specifics with printing photography, and using different variations of paper led me to an ink problem. On a couple of my prints I used ink that was for glossy paper on the matte paper, so it printed dark and contrasted. Besides that, the finalizing of my assignment went rather well.

This week was very successful. I finalized my assignment and finished my post edit work. Adobe Photoshop was my main source for editing and I am really happy with the outcome: 

Inspiration for my work came from copious amounts of research online about post-editing and photoshop in photography. I didn't want the edit to take away from the photo or the narrative, so a lot of time was spent getting it right. Just as other artists are careful as well, some of my favorite examples are:

More and more progress is being made throughout this past week. After brainstorming, I came up with the focus to be more on the emotion behind the photo. Essentially, what does the photo say to you? Using light, props, staging, etc., a message can be portrayed easily. This past week was definitely a success, I narrowed down the narrative to revolve around love and the journey behind it; especially with Valentine’s Day around the corner. 

I needed help coming up with ways to portray emotion in this narrative piece, so I went to resources of some very known photographers. Annie Leibovitz is always a go to resource for inspiration, her work is very profound and detailed. I would go through pages and pages of photographs, galleries, stories, and portfolios just to find one simple or small idea worth trying. A good resource I like to go to is: http://portfolioone.com/photographers/annie-leibovitz/

This is a perfect example of portraying humor into a photograph. Just one of many ways to involve emotion into a photo.

Another artist to go to for similar inspiration, in my opinion, is Cindy Sherman. Her constructed images are so detailed to provide some sort of message or narrative, and they can really stir up some thinking. A good resource for this to go to is: https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/cindysherman/#/2/ 

This is the type of work I like to go to in relation to emotion in photography, because its done so well without color. Starting the hard way will make using color much easier with emotion.

I’ll close off with an example of my recent work (unedited) in regards to emotion / color, inspired by the above:

This week I began experimenting and focused on light. I wanted to construct lighting that helped tell a story or a narrative; even the slightest bit. I worked with a subject holding a guitar and having a carefully placed dead flower in the seen as well. Working in a dark environment also required steady tripod use and patience. Setting the camera’s specs to get the shot you want can be a process thought rewarding when you see your shots previewed. This can definitely be defined as a successful week for me in this project.

This week has been an up and down experience with this new topic of photography. I don’t have much experience in staged or constructed photography though I have always found it to be interesting. This past week turned into a heavy brainstorm workshop. In terms of progress on this project, this week is a small failure. I couldn’t come up with any test shots, most of my progress came in the form of ideas. I brainstormed and researched to better grasp my concept of constructed images and how to go about them. Websites such as: https://www.artsy.net/gene/staged-photography and http://www.historygraphicdesign.com/the-age-of-information/national-visions-within-a-global-dialogue/513-staged-photography