Joachim Schmid

When exploring an exhibition like Paris Photo sometimes you see things that catch your eye but that don’t become relevant until you are set a brief. This is exactly what happened when I stopped and stared at the work of Joachim Schmid in November 2014 at Paris Photo. I knew it was beautiful from the outset but I wasn’t sure why I liked it so much. Its another link to the idea that the subconscious holds on to things and they come out later in our creativity. What made me want to colour the images in when appropriating them for the hand and eye workshop? A feeling of ‘I just did’ is the basis of all art forms. We respond to things in our own way and create things that are unique to us, weather thats by appropriation or originality.

It seems like fate that his work is illustrated in the book set in our brief. Between pages 22-27 of ‘Post Photography the artist with a camera’ in the first theme of appropriation Schmid’s various work is explained. The beauty in the variance between books and exhibitions is that at Paris Photo I only saw this select work:

From Estrelas Amadas (Beloved Stars) 2013

This set ‘Estrelas Amadas’ was made by hand colouring the lips of treasured photographs of Hollywoods finest from the 50’s. Like my own work he took his imagery from magazines from the 1950’s. The magazines were second hand and the previous owner had coloured all the lips in bright red. This inspired this set and his later interest in hollywoods black and white movie stills. The attention to the detail in the alteration of the magazine image was so precise it drew him in enhancing his love for the way a photograph can be personalised so that it now has a different use to what it was first intended. Th notion of adding colour is not a new one and historically it pre-dates the evolution of colour film. People wanting to enhance their black and white memories with colour before the introduction of the technology of colour in photography, painting and drawing upon their own photographic prints.

However in the book, compared to the one set of work I was exposed to at the exhibition, I now know that he has a vast collection of altered appropriated material in his work. He doesn’t stop at simply colouring in the mere details but his pre-dated work was all from found imagery that he was given when expressing his desire to rework the photographic medium. In fact his earlier work ‘Statics (women’s Fashion Catalogue) from his series ‘Photographic Drafts’ interests me too. As it is similar to the exhibition of Time and Place and the work exhibited by Brian and Gareth McClave.

Statics (Women’s Fashion Catalogue) 1999 from Photographic Drafts.

The reason for my interest is the horizontal strips, like Brian and Gareth McClaves vertical strips in their time-lapse. They are quite surreal and you can’t make out what the image is until further reading. Simply put its a composite image of all of his re-worked imagery. Expressing Schmid’s interest in the ability for photographs to be recycled. Shredding them and reworking them into a new composite image. Carefully gathering them together to create an abstract with a white noise feel. I like the repetitiveness of the strips and how it intertwines with the colour to give an surreal almost methodical texture.

As I am looking into how the subconscious seems to effect the way creative people do things I can’t help but find links between my intention and his. Being a leading artist in appropriation since the 1980’s Schmid has expressed his doubts in the established processes of photography and how the need to rework a range of vernacular sources is buried in his brain (Shore, 2014, pp22). Formulating his work around what society collects and discards as imagery and what we preserve as samples of our times and cultures. Very much the missing link between the creative process and the everyday imagery. The notion of ‘Buried somewhere in the unexplored clefts of my brain’ (Shore, 2014, pp22) is essentially what I have intentionally tried to explore. What and why we do things? What experiences and research fuel our photographic practise?

Paris Photo 2014, Photography Exhibition, November 2014

Shore, Robert. Post-Photography. Print. Pp22-27

Strips of Manipulation.

As a teenage girl I remember being bombarded with images that made me question my very being. The flawless skin and size 2 models was positively detrimental to my development as an early teen. When all you see is perfection its easy to get lost in the why don’t I look the same. Normal is not good enough. Originally I set out to deface these images with colour. Colouring directly on to the surface using felt tip pens making them ugly as I go.

Being inspired by the work of Brian and Gareth McClave, the way they use time lapse in images, and wanting to still work traditionally. I decided to slice the images I had coloured into strips and align them together with the non coloured images. Creating quite a surreal effect. Just like the lines of passing time in the McClaves’ work. In reality they still look beautiful but the strange effect makes them just the tiniest little bit of centre and therefor slightly more relatable to the average person, as the distortion seems more accurate than the photoshopped, airbrushed, unnatural look we are all used to seeing.

I like the effect that the repetitive strips make. Distorting the view. Especially with the addition of colour it seems to work really well, seems to highlight the key features more when there is only a small amass of illuminated detail. Bright pigmented colours seem to work best when trying to highlight the detail, especially on the normally black and white images. Using printed images from magazines has created a nice texture when colouring on top of the images. The stripy effect of the texture adds to the surreal effect of the hand cut stripes.

The geometric pattern created by the hand cut strips is also reminiscent of the rough cut shapes in the work of Jonny Briggs and how he covers detail using crude cut geometric shapes. As much as I have enjoyed this hand layered technique I would like to experiment with creating strips of images digitally as a first step toward my composite image. I also want to see how I could extend the cubist notion by using layers and masks in Photoshop.

©samanthajaneriley

Time and Place.

Time and Place was a recent exhibition held at Solent Showcase Gallery. From the 13th February to the 21st March 2015 you were able to explore the thought provoking work created by André Lichtenberg and Brian and Gareth McClave. Before we went to visit the gallery we were lucky enough to have a lecture from each of them on their work and process.

We then met them at the gallery to discuss their work further. Although we went to see this exhibition in February it has only now resurfaced in my mind as it bears relevance to and has inspired the next element of my independent collage. The particular link between mine and Brian and Gareth McClaves’s work.

Brian and Gareth McClave Lights, 2013, Digital Slow Scan Photograph, Exposed for 1 hour.

Brian and Gareth McClave Midnight Sun, 2013, Digital Slow Scan Photograph, Exposed for 2 hours.

Their actual process to produce these images uses the slow scan method, working with stop animation and time-lapse photography. Brian McClave talked about his appreciation for processes that create a different view of the world, something that links to my initial idea of allowing my subconscious view of the world to be present in my composite image. This work mainly influenced by Daguerreotypes and how the layering of history is manifested into their marks. A literal scope of time. From the extremely long exposure times of hours creates a sublimely heavy view of the 3D elements. Brian McClave travelled around the UK in a van which he made into a camera. Living within the camera has produced an interesting effect. An effect which he claims to base his photography on, creating photographs in a way that he doesn’t know how it will turn out. Another link to what I am exploring in my own work. How composing images can simply just turn out in the way they do. His way of working is similar to the Victorian exploratory faze and fashion of past eras.

What I am most interested in is the repetitive strips that this process creates. Manipulating the audiences view and perception of space. By exploring how this effect could be replicated traditionally and digitally by cutting strips of images and composing them together on a scanner bed I will respond to this work.

Andre Lichtenberg, Brain and Gareth McClave, ‘Time and Space’  Solent Showcase Gallery – Southampton – UK – 13th Feb / 21st Mar 2015

Brian-gareth-mcclave.com,. N.p., 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.