Most of the top images are progressing the “Updating Magritte” project or are creative street photography. This is a departure from previous years where autumn has focused on landscapes
To see the above photos in more details, click on the image above, to read about them click below, and in either case please follow me on the social media links to the right
Top Image
Reshoot of my recreation of René Magritte’s most famous Son of Man painting. Although this is obviously a composite, the apple was shot in situ in front of the self-portrait. The intention is to present an obvious multiple image without making it obvious where the join is
An important subtlety that most people miss, in both Magritte’s original and my version, is his left elbow which appears to be pointing backwards
Other Images
“Man and Woman” in the style of René Magritte
“Conversation”
This is a reinterpretation of Magritte’s painting of the same name. The idea being that a good conversation lifts you
“My Study”
“Feet and Clouds”
a reworked version on my original with more prominent feet/ shoes. All based on Magritte’s “Model Rouge”
“Uncertainty”
Technically, the other side of the door from “My Study” above
“Henry Moore’s Shed’
This is an abstract photograph and the fact that it was shot at the Henry Moore Museum in Much Hadham is largely irrelevant
To me it’s about the texture in the glass and walls and the stripe of colour across the top of the image
“Blue Poles”
Named after but nothing like the Jackson Pollock painting of the same name. An enigmatic image from Waterloo station
This might work well as a PDI, without a keyline so that the par across the middle separates the two sections whilst also blending into the background
“September”
The title hints at a back-to-school association; the subject is shown mainly in shadow waving at an unseen person. I shot the model at ComicCon Excel London on 29th October 2023 and the background in Riga at the start of September this year and the composite was produced shortly after my return on the 5th
“Helsinki Nocturn Diptych”
I think the diptych is greater than the sum of its parts; in isolation I don’t believe that the elements are sufficiently interesting to hold the viewer’s attention for very long, whereas the two in combination provide the sense of mystery and revelation
Eleventh out of 10:
“St Marygate Hamlet”
Shot in York. Conveys the cold autumn evening with mist and mystery
The composition appeals as an abstract
Technical Skills
The Photoshop “Select Subject” command often leaves a jagged edge, particularly at the edge of clothing that should be a smooth diagonal line. In the past I have dealt with this by either using the smudge tool on the resulting mask, but this leaves a blurred edge, or redefining the selection with the pen tool, which is accurate but fairly tedious. New technique learnt on the 11th November:
- <option> select mask to see it in black and white
- select the jagged edge using the lasso tool
- filter blur – gaussian blur – start at 0.1 and increase until smooth
- image levels: bring the whites and blacks close together to effectively reduce the feathering and leave a smooth line
Distinctions
The following is a draft statement of intent for a submission to the Royal Photographic Society’s Contemporary Group:
New Artists
1st September, 2 Latvian artists:
- Andris Eglītis, born 1981 in Latvia, exhibition “Some Encounters of Imagination and Matter”
- Jānis Deinats, photographer, “The First Five Years”, documentary of the period before Latvian independence
- Balraj Khanna – (1938-2024) born in in Punjab India, lived since 1960 in England and France, was a metamorphic (or biomorphic) surrealist painter in a similar style to Joan Miro
- Emmy Bridgewater – British Surrealist and contemporary of E.L.T. Messens (Belgian leader of the British surrealist movement and friend of René Magritte) – small body of work due to a career stifled by domestic responsibilities, but acknowledged and exhibited by André Breton
- Gabriel Isak – Surrealist photography of solitary figures next to their own silhouette which symbolises their inner state or unconscious – very minimalist
- Chris Killip – social commentary on British working class life in the 60s, 70s & 80s moved to the USA in 1991 where he worked at Harvard University until 2017
- Karen Knorr – commentary on the British upper classes – photographs with short texts. She is for the UK what Jim Goldberg is for the USA (or at least the posh part of his comparison)
- Hanne Grete Einarsen – Norwegian painter and photographer
Notes:
Recent blog posts: