What is Conceptual Photography?

Conceptual photography is always known and described as different things, such as an artistic movement, a working method or a historical tradition. Everyone has their own definition of conceptual art, for me, conceptual photography is always connected to photoshop. The picture you edited with photoshop will finally be something impossible but real.

Here I found three films on Youtube which are about a number of artists and critics of what they think of conceptual photography, and how they define it. They are Sean O'Hagan, John Roberts, Lucy Soutter, John Hilliard, Suzanne Mooney and Broomberg and Chanarin.

What is Conceptual Photography? (part 1)What is Conceptual Photography? (part 2)
What is Conceptual Photography? (part 3)

Pinhole Photography Testing

After I discovered and knew more about Leicester Lo-Fi Photography which is a photography workshop based in Leicester, I am quite interested in taking pictures with traditional technique like pinhole. I might try something new later too!

I literally made a pinhole filter for my digital camera with two pieces of cardboard only, and pushed a hole into the centre of the cardboard with a very thin needle. Basically I just ‘install’ my handmade filter in front of my lens with marking tape. (It is much much better if you use black tape.) I will definitely try it later to see the differences.

I did some self-portrait and portrait of someone else at the same time. Colours vary from each picture because the light was changing.

Self-portrait:

Portrait:

Which one do you like most? I had so much fun with pinhole photography and I will definitely do more with some other traditional photography too!

Artist Collaborations

Art collaboration is not a new but a great idea for artists to work with different sculptors, painters and photographers. You could never imagine how a collaborated art piece eventually came out and it would always be a surprise. I like how my works might become different after collaborating with other artists and I can always be inspired by different collaborations!

Manuel Vason is a photography and performance artist based in London. He is a founder of Art Collaboration and at the same time he did lots of art collaborations with other artists.

And now I am going to show you two famous artist collaborations that I love so much.

Blinky Palermo, Gerhard Richter, Teflon, 1971. Screenprint and offset lithograph in colors on woven paper.

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, Paramount, 1984.

I am looking forward to the days that I am doing my first art collaboration with other artists!

Leicester Lo-Fi Photography

I enjoy taking pictures, especially portrait. My interest in photography was built up day by day because I needed to document my makeup portfolio through camera. Now I found a really great group of Leicester based photographers called Leicester Lo-Fi Photography.

They provide a lot of traditional aspects of photography such as old film cameras, toy cameras, pin holes, alternative processes and darkroom printing. I think that is very interesting as we can literally try taking pictures with different styles of camera. Also, I am sure we can share ideas and take pictures with different photography lovers. This is going to be so much fun!

They hold exhibitions and set photography projects, too. If you are interested in photography, you might want to try their service as they have a lot of small groups or individual one-on-one tutorials for those who want to use their facilities.

Check here for more information.

Graffiti at Brick Lane

I saw a lot of graffiti while I was on my way to Brick Lane Market in London, and I felt so impressed when I saw them everywhere in Brick Lane. It is full of art and culture there, isn’t it?

‘No artist, except some.’

I did get some inspirations from those graffiti and I love this artistic and cultural lane so much. I have not seen somewhere with a huge amount of graffiti before. I do appreciate that street art has been approved by the government and it showed how people here support their art and culture.

White Li(n)es by Bart Lodewijks

I went to Whitechapel Art Gallery on the same day. ‘Bart Lodewijks: White Li(n)es‘ was one of the exhibition there, from 9 December 2014 to 8 March 2015.

Bart Lodewijks is a Dutch artist who uses urban environments as a canvas for his abstract white-line chalk drawings, from residential buildings to busy street in the city centres.

I think his concept is very clear and interesting. I have not thought of using urban surroundings as a canvas for drawings. Those abstract white-line drawings are really matched with the buildings.

Monochrome Archive by David Batchelor

I went to Whitechapel Art Gallery at Aldgate East in London today and there was a photography and video exhibition about ‘Found Monochromes‘ – white rectangular and square panels through cities from London to Sao Paulo by David Batchelor.

‘Abstract art is the art of the city and the monochrome is its exemplary form.’
David Batchelor

There are over 500 images and each of them are either a central white rectangle or square with a wide range of backdrops such as brick walls, car windows, wooden doors, metal fences and the general city streets.

I liked how he put them all together and make it as a multi-screen installation. It is very interesting that the background of each picture is changing, but the central white rectangle or square remains the same.

Print-making Formative Assessment

Today was my formative assessment for print-making. I finally made everything (What I have done before) together, and my artworks are eventually completed.

I got a B, undoubtedly. I should have tried different more colours rather than warm colours instead. I know it is very important for me to do a lot of colour approaches. Although I might not keep working on with print-making, I am sure this principle also works well with photography, too.

You will see some totally different art pieces soon. I promise.

Lens Based Formative Assessment

I had my lens based formative assessment today. I feel so wonderful and I would like to let you know that I got an A for this subject! This has literally proved that I am really interested in photography! I will keep it up and share my work here with you all. Thanks everyone who took part in my pictures! It would not be that good without you!

And I would also love to share the latest version of my video that is around 2-minute long! I hope you will enjoy it!

London and Me

In my self-directed project, I am going to focus on portrait photography and conceptual photography is the main theme of my project. ‘London and Me‘ is my self-portrait that I took at home where I stood in front of my bedroom window, and I literally used photoshop to do with the background – Tower of London.

Which one do you like more?

Geometric

I did a geometric face painting makeup and took some portraits, and at the end I turned them both into negative pieces instead. It made them both look so cool and even more dramatic!

All colours in the pictures were warm and optimistic, but now they look sad and scary. I like the above one more because the model looks like she is struggling and painful.

Black Widow

Black widow is like a powerful superwoman who is inwardly very pessimistic. This is her impression to everyone. However, she acts as strong as possible to fool everyone, not to let you know how weak she actually is.

So I tried to show her feeling through the photographs and turned them both into black-and-white. So what impression have you got after you saw the pictures?

Dina Goldstein’s Photography

Dina Goldstein is my favourite conceptual portrait photographer, and I found her photography very inspiring and interesting as she tried to show something in the unreal or unusual situations to inspire insight into our human condition. Her pictures are always placed in modern day scenarios, humanized and survived without the happy endings.