Digitally altering found images using Photoshop

Here is my first real attempt at a digital collage using Photo Shop.
All images here including the poltergeist screen shot, TV and static interference were found on the web.

I layered all the images in photo shop, then using the hidden layers and the brush tool I was able to show through the 2 other images.

Proposal: The Swinging Sixties

PROPOSAL: The swinging sixties

In this digital exploration of the swinging sixties I will be visually commenting on the popular culture of this era in relation to the typical Australian home.

The exploration will have a strong emphasis on the modern architecture at the time as well as decor, music, popular television shows and family values reflected in a 1968 home.

I am indirectly addressing the topic of how a popular trend can influence one’s persona, how they dress, what values they hold and how they decorate their home to what kind of TV shows they watch.

 I have chosen this topic because it allows for creative commentary and contrast of the 1960’s popular culture. It also provides viewers with an opportunity to see the average Australian family home in this era without the emphasis on drugs and hippie culture the swinging sixties is known for.

I feel confident in addressing this topic using photography and other kinds of digital media. I have collected images and video footage from a house that was built in 1968 and styled with decor from this era. I feel that any social commentary regarding topics such as family values, changes in attitudes and popular culture in the past is still valid in our modern world.

The general perception of the Swinging Sixties implies the hippie drug culture in America and England. However I am proposing a new sub category of the 1960’s era which concentrates on how the typical Australian family lived.

My art work will be a digital tour through the typical 1960’s home. It will largely rest on the current mod-cons of this era. For example, the architecture of the home, the furnishings used; bright coloured furniture, Automatic Electric phones, type writers, television sets and light fittings.

My artwork will also feature still shots of found images. These images will be of iconic television stars of this era. Agent 86 from Get smart, Sam from Bewitched and Jeannie from I dream of Jeannie.

These images will be arranged on the photos I have taken myself as a collage.

Using digital art to explore my topic of the swinging sixties allows me to visually convey every aspect of my topic. Along with music and photos I plan to create a nostalgic atmosphere, something that cannot be attained through an essay.

I have taken images and video footage direct from the source of the 1960’s home. This will provide the main feature in my artwork. These photos will provide the 60’s vibe and the sense you have stepped back in time to a 60’s home. I then plan to layer the background with collected images of famous television stars of this era, and place them around the home. For example, Agent 86 seated in a yellow chair in front of the TV.

I will be presenting my artwork as a technicolour video tour. I will be projecting this video onto a screen accompanied by music that was top of the charts in 1968.

The reason I will be presenting it this way is because it allows the images to encompass a large area where every person in the class is able to see, hear and experience the video.

To present my artwork I will need a darkened room, a projector and access to a computer with a USB or CD- ROM drive.

I have been influenced by one particular collage entitled “Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing?”  (pictured below) by Richard Hamilton (1956).

This has inspired my portrayal of the topic Swinging Sixties as I will be incorporating found images that relate to my topic from magazines and the internet as a collage.

 

References:

Hamilton, R 1956,  Just what makes todays' home so different, so appealing? Collage.
Viewed 28th of March, 2011
<http://www.dreamcollage.com/richard-hamilton-collage.htm>

Photography: Bill Henson

I was first introduced to Bill Henson's photography during a year 12 philosophy excursion. While viewing Bill Henson’s controversial exhibition I noticed how he used a dark background to portray his characters in an eerie pale glow which draws the viewer's eye into the subjects' features and facial expressions.

 As most of his work is based around youth, it seems as though he is holding captive a snapshot of the secret life of a teenager. The viewer can see pain, awkwardness and anxiety in his subjects’ expressions.

Henson Bill, Untitled #61, 1998-2000, Exhibited at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.

http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/18/Bill_Henson/79/

Henson's photography convey his subjects in such a raw and unguarded state that you cannot help but make create a narrative in your mind to the image you are viewing. His art provokes you to question the characters’ previous events that lead up to this photograph and what they might be feeling at that point in time. 

Brainstorming Topics for Digital Photography.

The first topic I thought of exploring was inspired by the musician and artist Niagara Detroit.
A Punk Rock Icon (from the band Destroy all Monsters)  who is now creating pop art styled pictures centred around 1950’s looking pin up girls with modern angst attitudes.

Detroit’s’ artwork gave me the idea to digitally investigate how the female image has been portrayed over the decades starting with Propaganda posters from World War II. This particular poster Join Us in a Victory Job (pictured, AWM ARTV00332. ) depicts glamorous uniformed women in various working roles which were previously considered male-only occupations such as postal and factory workers.

This photographic journey would continue on through iconic pictures that represent a time line such as Audrey Hepburn’s photograph at Breakfast at Tiffany’s through to current musicians that become the covers of popular magazines.

This investigation may include detailed juxtapositions between poses, clothing, makeup and what the photo is selling, whether it be a new social norm, (such as the WWII propaganda posters) fashion, film or music.                                                             

This idea of art or a photograph being an icon then lead me to the thought of how a CD or LP album cover can also become iconic  as well  as an identifying representation to the artist or band. For example Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon is a memorable interpretation of a prism catching the light causing a rainbow to pass through it. Or Nirvana’s nevermind album, a baby submerged in a swimming pool caught as an underwater shot.

Both investigations would reflect how art is iconic to a particular decade, social norm, genre whether it is be music, film or fashion and what the depth of the message is behind the artwork.