29th March update.

we are now 12 weeks into the project;

This week i have continued to look at artists and inspiration for my images/creation, i have come across a few artists;

Sandhi Schimmel has mastered the art of transforming trash to treasure in her unique mosaics made of paper waste. Her purpose as an artist is to create unique, amazing portraits while helping the environment by re-using commonly wasted products.
Schimmel used tax forms and political junk mail to create this stunning masterpiece which is below. All of her work is very environmentally friendly and taking the waste out of the community and giving it back as someone beautiful.

After looking at all my artists i have been inspired to take black and white photography of religious imagery which i will then print off and paint over in the colours of the flags of the countries in east africa. I will then scan these images back into the computer and i will then print them onto recycled materials for example C.ds.  As i have had this idea i will look at a photographer that does a same process to this although with dirt, and that is stephen gill.

Stephen Gill started in photography at a young age. He later started to experiment with different materials and different processes. This creates a very unique style to his photography. 

Stephen Gill prints mud, and animals onto the top of his images to create a kind of 'foreground' to his image although you are still able to see the image through this layer.

This has inspired me to manipulate my images in a very unique way. 

Also this week i will also research the way Rankin (photographer) got the children on Jamie's dream school (Tv programe) to manipulate their images.

15th March post.

we are now 10 weeks into the project;

This week i have started to think about ideas again, i have come up with the idea to use recycle goods to put my images onto, this idea came about when researching about mosaics and artists that use recycled tiles/glass to create their sculptures. 

I have looked into the different ways to do this. 

One of my first ideas was to use liquid light or SE1 which is a liquid emulsion, this would then be put onto the items and used as if it was dark room paper, although when researching into this both of these products cost around £30 for 250ml.

The second idea was to use adhesive labels that you are able to print onto. These cost only around £10-15 alough i would have to buy extra to trail these as it would be hard getting the print onto the label in the correct position. 

I have also used fabric prints before where you use an iron to transfer the image onto a material, this will also go onto wood like substances. These cost around £5, although i am unsure whether this would give me the desired affect. 

I have also looked into artists which use recycled items to create their art, like Dr Evermors shown below. 

8th March update.

We are now 9 weeks into the project;

This week i have started to put my research to use, i have started to take test shots, i have uploaded them below these are unedited images and i plan on editing them into black and white and also messing with them with contrast and also levels.

After doing this shoot i have also decided that  i would like to have the background completely empty unlike the last image, also that i wouldn't like the bands on the models hand. 

I plan on having a flag also in the hands of the model along with the cross, this is how i will go forward.

1st March update.

We are now 8 weeks into the extended project;

I have started to look further into religious photography, and found a company called Sevenapples run by Justin Ullmer. He takes religious imagery, and truly believes in all the meanings behind it. 

I have chosen this image as i plan on using black and white images of hands showing the cross therefore showing religion and this is very closely related, as it has all the components just taken a little different. This image is a very strong image due to the use of lighting but also the composition, the hand is very well positioned due to the rule of thirds and the 'focal' point of the image the word you, is also very well placed, as it is placed directly in the middle of all the thirds grid lines. Due to how well the lighting has been thought out has created a strong composition of shading as the darkness of the shading towards the bottom of the image draws your eyes up to the main focal point of the image. 

I have also chosen this image from the same creator, as i think it shows the diversity of religious art, and how religious art can be creative and 'modern'. I have chosen this image in specific as it has taken all the colours that you may relate to Africa and created an item that could be special to many people christian or those of an African roots. I would like to incorporate these sorts of colours into my outcome.

 I then looked into the colours of the flags within east Africa.

                                                        

The images above are of the flags, and i want to look into the colors used. I have noticed that a lot of reds and blacks are used and also 'tribal' designs.

Some initial idea that i have had to manually manipulate my outcome/photos is to use a mosaic form and to maybe create a background, or border for my image so that you can still see the image clearly and what it is wanting to portray.

Or another idea that i have would be to mosaic or draw/paint onto the actual image to create a religious imagery but then to colour it in African colours. I could do this by printing onto trancing paper, which would then allow me to see the image faintly and then painting ect on top of this.
I also had an idea that i could print the images onto a material using either cotton or wood, and then editing the image once it is on there, i think this could create a very personal response to the brief and also create a personal creative item.