Property Work

So far in the holidays I have taken some images for a property company. It was a series of photographs taken in Didsbury and edited to a tiger animal theme. So I shot the photographs and converted them to black and white, I gave them an orange tint. Which is cheesy but what they wanted. Enjoy

Clock Tower - Disbury

Didsbury Library - Didsbury

Girls School - Disbury - Didn't take this just had to retouch it.

Victorian Doorway - Didsbury

Fletcher Moss - Didsbury

The Decisive Moment

The Decisive Moment was a photographic concept founded by Henry Cartier Bresson. He was a french photograph noted most for his candid shots. In 1948 Bresson took a series of photographs at Ghandi's funeral, he also took the final moments before china became communist. Around this time Bresson developed a skill known as the decisive moment. He created and practiced this himself.

In 1952 Bresson published a book called 'The Decisive Moment' within this book was a set amount of photographs which obeyed this rule.

"Photography is not like painting," Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

The Decisive Moment is an movement of photography which is used all the time today. I myself use it and so do many other photographers. A photograph is best when it is captured at the exact right time.

Symbolistic Artist Research

The Storm - Edvard Munch

The storm by Edvard Munch is a very simplistic painting at first glance. It does however have symbolic meanings. As we see in this painting there are people standing outside in a storm however the storm may also represent an argument or event which has occurred involving these people. The storm is not just physical but also an emotional thing. The figures are simplified to point of anonymity so we cannot tell who they are, we can however tell the woman in white is very innocent and caught up in this situation. We can tell this by the colour of her dress which is white. This is the natural colour of innocence. The storm is therefore connected to her and her innocence.

Green Death - Odilon Redon

This is a symbolistic painting painted by Odilon Redon. In this piece of artwork a green figure is rising out of a snake. This has many symbolic references and meanings. For example at the time the drink Absinthe was very popular and killed lots of people. Absinthe here is being portrayed by the green spirit rising out of a snake. The green death has symbolic references to intoxicated people and life styles. The picture could also resemble the suspension of regular patterns of thinkings. Overall the painting has very symbolistic meaning.

Masks Confronting Death - James Ensar

This is a painting by James Ensar. It was painted in the 19th century when symbolism was in full swing. The painting has obvious symbolistic messages. For example in this shot many masked and strange people are confronting death. This could represent bad people asking death to be killed in order to free them from their sins. They may be followers of death in the sense that they kill people, for example they may be murderers. Another meaning could be that death is represented as a good thing and that in dying we are free from the bad things in life. Death is depicted as wearing posh robes and royal clothing in order to make it look good. The masked people therefore represent the bad things in life.

It isnt just 19th century painters that used symbolism within their work. Symbolism is seen in Henry Cartier Bresson's work too. For example in this shot taken in Poland we can see lots of hidden meanings. The word 'railowsky' seen in the background is a typical german jewish word. This lets us know of the time and the troubles that were occuring. The man in the shot is also running which signifies he is running from a troubled regime or from Hitlers SS men. There are also links to the countries fate as symbolised by the broken ladder. It resembles that the country is in stalemate and that it is going nowhere. The broken wheel also symbolises mankind is breaking as the wheel was mans first invention.

College, Historic and Contextual studies

Introduction, main charateristics and symbolism's aims.

Symbolism, symbolism is an art movement it emerged in the 1880s and was shadowed by modernism around the same time. This was influenced at the time by spiritualism, anarchisim and socialism. This is a show of immaterial or ultimate reality. Symbolism is a belief of all systems and this is portrayed in many late century paintings and artists. Obvious disturbance and disturbance within people is also a characteristic of symbolism and this will be found within symbolistic artwork. Symbolisim makes use of dreams and this can cause the artwork to become rather abstract. Symbolists themselves try to reveal arts hidden meanings.

During the outbreak of this artistic movment things were happening around the world. For example in the core of the 1880's the second industrial revoloution happened and many new inventions spurred artistic movements. 1881 Was also the year Emperor Alexander II was assassinated and this sparked mass world controversy as to what had happened to him. Shortley after all of the Czar's were killed and people were searching for the missing Czar Anastasia who was believed to be alive. This was portrayed in many pieces of artwork painted at the time. A massive natural disaster also occurred. In 1883 Krakatoa erupted killing 36,000 people. This also shook the world greatly. Symbolism and Artwork was also affected by mass political races inbetween countries. Many Colonies were set up and Britain was one of the biggest empires this also inspired artistic movements throughout.