ILA - Documentary Still Life

For this part of the module, I am to write an individual learning agreement stating which area of still life photography I am going to focus on for the remaining four weeks until hand in. I have chose to follow this field of photography for this part of the module because I feel I am most confident in all of the types of still life photography I have studied and practiced during the course of each mini-assignment, such as food, product, vanitas and nature morte and digital montage photography. Documentary photography is a genre I personally would like to continue doing into Level 6, and feel it would be the most suitable to practice for my individual learning agreement. I plan to shoot two or three times a week so that I will have a good choice of images to choose from for my final prints for when it is hand in. Documentary still life has fascinated me more than the other area's of still life photography because of how it presents a narrative.

The narrative that my photographs will present are going to include objects that hold a sentimental value to them, similar to what I produced for the documentary still life mini assignment. I am going to approach family, friends, colleagues and peers to present me with an object that they own that has a nostalgic, fondness or sentimental value to them and photograph it. Along side the photographs I will also present a set of text that explains why this has a special meaning to the individual. I am yet to decide whether the text will be a description written by myself, or what the individual who's object it is has spoke about it and present it as a piece of text or some sort of audio. I am going to shoot on location rather than the studio, because I think this can effect the final outcome of how the story of the image is portrayed and how it will appear.

Over the course of the next few weeks I will update my blogger with where I have been shooting and what I have been shooting, which will develop how I plan to decide what images will be best to use for my final series.

Digital Montage Shoot

For my digital Montage 'shoot' I have collected a range of images that I feel go well together and represent still life photography. All the images have been taken from google as for digital montage it does not really matter where the images are from, it is more about what you create with them. Below are the images that I have cut out using the quick selection tool to cut out the object that I need to place on to my digital montage. I simple have used a brick wall as the main background and placed two palm trees on to it. some coconuts and a cartoon sun. iI used all of these objects because I think that photographed individually, they can all be accepted into the still life genre. So placing them all together still makes it still life, but placing them all together makes it a digital montage. As this is my first digital montage I have kept it very easy and simple, whilst I learn more about photoshop and how to use it.

My second digital montage I have expanded further in my skills and researched more photographers in the digital montage field. I have decided to use different sunglasses from the branch Coach that is based in America. It is a designer brand that produces bags also. I have created this digital montage by using different layers for each pair of sunglasses and also included the brand name underneath, as if it is a advertising campaign. I have also created this in the style of David Parfitt who is a product photographer. Although he is a product photographer I have created my image in the way digital montage would be, in photoshop and maybe David Parfitt has as well. 

I would definitely like to explore digital montage photography even further as anything can be included or made in to a digital montage. The possibilities are basically endless. It can be objects placed together or even a mood board type image. Digital Montage has expanded my skills in photoshop, which I will definitely be improving also. 

Digital Montage Photographers

David Brandon Geeting

David Brandon Geeting is a well established photographer in many different fields. The three images above are just a tiny insight into his huge selection of work on his website and tumblr. I enjoyed looking through his tumblr the most and have become really fond of his work because of how different his work is, nothing like I have seen before. A lot of his work includes different objects and background that appear to have been created on photoshop or any other retouching softwares. I particularly like the second image I have included. The objects look to have been placed there that are from different images, showing how it is digital montage photography. He seems to specialise in this area photography but includes it in his fashion and editorial work. Digital montage really compliments his work because of the bold colours he uses that makes the object he is focused on photographing really stand out.

Mari Mahr

Mari Mahr's work is quite a contrast to the other two photographers I have presented here. All of her photography shown on her portfolio on her website is black and white, rather than the other photographers I have researched, where it seems to be bright and colourful. Her digital montage work seems to be one large photograph in the background then other photographs on top of that and then maybe even more physical objects over that. I like the way Mahr has created her work through using  a number of layers to create the digital montage effect. It seems that she has not used photoshop to create this, although it would be possible by using that also. Using black and white rather than colour works for her photography, as it appears quite dark and emotional.

Qui Yang

Qui Yang's work has been featured in numerous fashion magazines and websites. He presents his own style throughout all work in his portfolio, that has clearly led to his successful with major companies such as Elle magazine. Much of his work is fashion or editorial photography, but includes digital montage techniques, which is what makes his photography so unique. Bold and colourful seems to be  a recurring theme throughout his work, which always seem to compliment the objects he is photographing, whether it be jewellery or clothing. His work is definitely edited on photoshop, or another software as it is clear to see the different shapes and objects he uses along side the products have been manipulated with.

Digital Montage

Digital Montage photography is totally different to any other still life based photography that I have studied and practiced for this module. Digital Montage requires the use of photoshop to create images that may include more than one photograph placed on top of one another either physically or through photoshop. For example it could be created with a background image and then other images can be included by being cut out whatever shape or object they may be. Digital Montage is in the field of still life photography because it is often just one or a few objects with not a lot going on around them. The photograph can often be of anything, including fashion magazines. I have included a few examples of what I think is digital montage photography. The images are all focused on one object but the objects around it have been manipulated or been 'cut out' on photoshop and have been placed there, making it a digital montage. For my own Digital Montage I am going to focus on layering on photoshop and include around five or more images, placed on top of each other to give a montage effect. I don't really have a certain idea in mind, I am just going to use images that I think are still life and will show still life in the aspect of Digital Montage.