Creativity Archives

Exploring the Artistry of Wolfgang Tillmans

I was looking through the medals and acceptances awarded at this year’s London Salon. The majority of awarded images were brilliantly creative. It is clear that to win photography distinctions today it is not enough to point your camera at a fabulous sunset, anyone with a smartphone can do that. To make waves now requires real creative input from the photographer.

Making waves brings me to the world of Wolfgang Tillmans, a photographer who is renowned for his innovative approach and his ability to creatively capture the essence of life. Tillmans’s work crosses conventional boundaries, blurring the lines between photography, abstraction, and conceptual art. I love his later work and I have curated some of his abstract images here. There are also videos about Tillmans here

Abstract and Conceptual Explorations

Tillmans’ career started with traditional photography, but later he started to explore abstraction and conceptual art. He experimented with the photographic process itself, manipulating light, colour, and exposure to create mesmerizing abstract compositions. These works often evoke emotions, making viewers revaluate their own interpretation of the images.

Recognition and Influence

Wolfgang Tillmans is the only photographer to have won the prestigious Turner Prize which he achieved in 2000. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, solidifying his place as one of the most influential artists of our time.

Wolfgang Tillmans Exhibitions

Tillmans curates his photographs in unique and thought-provoking ways. These often immersive installations allow visitors to experience his art interactively, blurring the line between the observer and the observed. He rejects the conventions of photographic presentation, developing connections between his pictures and the social space of the exhibition. Unframed prints are taped to the walls or clipped and pinned. Framed photographs appear alongside magazine pages. Images are grouped on walls and tabletops as photocopies, colour or black-and-white photographs, and video projections.

“I see my installations as a reflection of the way I see, the way I perceive or want to perceive my environment,” Tillmans has said. “They’re also always a world that I want to live in.”

“The viewer…should enter my work through their own eyes, and their own lives”
Wolfgang Tillmans

His exhibition To Look without Fear, is at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 9 November 2023 – 3 March 2024

Roxanne Bouche Overton : Liminal Time

by John Gough

This year has to be about abstract photography and photo expressionism. The world is becoming too damaged to just capture images with clean lines and clear perspectives. I want to become engulfed in a liminal universe and draw inspiration from other visual artists working in the same space. One such photographer I admire is Roxanne Bouche Overton.

Photographing Liminal Space

Roxanne Bouche Overton is intrigued by the photography of liminal space and time.

A liminal space is a place between two other places or two states of being. Liminal spaces are often empty and can create unease or uncertainty.

Liminal photography can be used to capture the feeling of being in a dream or the feeling of being lost. It can also be used to capture the feeling of being in a place that is both familiar and unfamiliar.

All of my life I’ve been chasing what I see out of the corner of my eye; those elusive visions, slightly blurred and a bit magical. But when I turn and focus on them, they disappear into ordinary. I wanted to learn how to capture that state of blur. It’s what caught my eye in the first place – I think it’s worth chasing.

When I am out shooting I am looking for those liminal spaces – the transitions between then and now – the transitions of between the blur of my peripheral vision as it moves to sharpness. We must be aware if we to engage our imaginations and collect these moments

Roxanne Bouche Overton

ICM

Roxanne is a master of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). Just to recap intentional camera movement (ICM) photography is a technique where you move the camera as the image is taken. This can be done by panning, tilting, or shaking the camera. The goal is to create an image with a sense of movement and blur.

Rozanne,s work however takes ICM to a different level, forget blurry ICM shots of tree trunks. Roxanne works with landscape and urban spaces, often including lone figures in vibrant surroundings.

Roxanne’s Photography

Learning from great photographers is one of the joys of photography. Why, when you see some images are you inspired enough to find out how and why the photographer captured that moment?

Especially when that moment is not representational, but more abstract and more about the emotion than the seeing. This is what has drawn me to the work of Roxanne Bouche Overton. Her photography has an eerie quality. Her ICM images are not what you have seen before, but what you might have seen, what you cannot quite remember seeing, what you thought you saw, or what you felt you saw but didn’t.

It is extraordinary how Roxanne’s work demonstrates how a camera can capture the elusive.

A Curation of Roxanne’s Work

I have curated some of her work here and there is so much more on her Instagram account.

Her website gives details of publications and workshops.

Her books are available on Amazon:

I have also found this clip which is interesting in giving an insight into her work and how she achieves her results

How Photographers See & Feel

by John Gough

I think photographers are special. Photographers see and feel differently from other people.

“Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.”
Anon

I am convinced that photographers see more than people who are not photographers. I am sure that photographers look continually for opportunities to see. When they do see, they can in that moment. Concentrate. Look for details. Wonder. Feel as well as see.

“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”
Don McCullin

Is there any Evidence?

Do Photographers See More?

In 2015 Canon undertook an experiment in which three people were asked to look at a picture. Eye tracking technology was used to analyse their eye movements. Showing where they focused and for how long.

Canon invited a non-photographer, a photography student and the professional photographer who shot the image. Each viewed the image.

The non-photographer focused on ten or so points that drew her attention with a total of 212 eye movements.

The photography student made twice as many eye movements. He also spent time looking at different areas of the image.

Finally, the person who photographed the image paid the most attention to the detail. Nearly 1200 eye movements.

See the chart above.

What does this prove? Well, nothing it was not a properly controlled test. It is just a little piece of flimsy evidence that supports my hypothesis that photographers look and see more.

How about feeling?

Do Photographers Bring Feeling to a Scene?

In another experiment, Canon examined the power of perspective in portrait photography. The camera company enlisted the help of 6 photographers and asked them each to independently shoot portraits of a man named Michael. But there was a twist: each photographer was told a different thing about Michael’s background.

The photographers were told that Michael was: a self-made millionaire, someone who has saved a life, an ex-inmate, a commercial fisherman, a self-proclaimed psychic, and a recovering alcoholic.

But… Michael is none of those things. He’s an actor, and as he followed the photographers’ direction, he did his best to take on the personality of each character.

The photographers, guided by their fictitious brief, had drastically different approaches to photographing their subject.

“A photograph is shaped more by the person behind the camera than by what’s in front of it,” Canon says. This experiment, titled “Decoy,” was intended to prove that point and “shift creative thinking behind the lens.”

The experiment is demonstrated in the video below:

A photographer’s feelings, attitude, character, opinion, and knowledge will all be captured in every picture they take.

Photographers are the luckiest people. We don’t just look. We see and we feel. We often capture moments that others would miss, and in sharing that experience we allow others into a private world that is uniquely ours

Hyper Collage Photography

by John Gough

Ysabel Le May Hyper Collage Photography

Hyper collage photography has developed out of collage, which has long been a technique used in both art and photography. Man Ray was an early exponent of photography collage in the 1930s. Jump forward, and we are all aware of the images created using Photoshop layers to build composites. Often to create fantasy effects. Andrea Hargreaves is one of my favourite artists using this technique.

….but what is collage? The Museum of Modern Art defines a collage as: a “technique and resulting work of art in which fragments of paper and other materials are arranged and glued to a supporting surface”.

Hyper collage photography is a technique that combines multiple images that are manipulated using Photoshop. For example, Jim Kazanjian uses the technique to combine photographs of different architectural features to create fantastical buildings and landscapes.

However, what has grabbed my attention. Are photographers that are using natural phenomena to create fine art hyper collage images.

Fine Art Hyper Collage Photography

Ysabel Le May

I first came across Ysabel le May at the Saatchi Art. Where her work sells for upwards of $4000.

She is based in Texas and her art has been exhibited all over the world.

Ysabel Le May can be summed up simply: W.O.W. It stands for ‘Wonderful Other Worlds’, which she creates through the process of hypercollage.
Saatchi Art

She photographs the natural world and uses collage to piece the images together to create a fantastical depiction of nature. She calls her images baroque tableaux.

The video above demonstrates the process she uses.

Lisa Frank

Lisa Frank is an American artist who describes her work as looking to communicate those momentary flashes of connectedness with nature.

She creates tapestries and still life composites using natural materials.

It is my purpose to draw the viewer into a local world as it hasn’t been seen before.
Lisa Frank

You can follow her process here.

Cas Slagboon

Cas Slagboom is a Dutch artist. Again he uses natural objects but often combined with human figures to create a fantasy feel.

For me, photography is more than capturing the perfect moment. Every time I try to capture my astonishment with a single photo, I am disappointed. This was not what I want to see and feel. It is larger, more complex, more diffuse. I have to bring all those fragments together. In compositions in which they together tell a story that transcends my understanding. So, that every time I look at it, I can be surprised again.
Cas Slagboon

All the photographic technology we have to capture our world in images may give us idea that we really see it. ………I use modern technology to find a language that exceeds the photographic moment, so there is sufficient room for the complexity of what we call reality.
Cas Slagboon

Summary

I included the two quotes from Cas Slagboon because they sum up my own feelings. That it is difficult to capture the reality of the moment with just one photograph. I have been experimenting with the Pep Ventosa style of photography and mixing abstract and reality to capture what we really see and feel.

Hyper collage photography is just one more technique on that journey.

Misty Autumn Photography

by John Gough

One of my big obsessions with photography is to try to photograph how the mind interprets what we see rather than what the camera is pointing at. Misty Autumn photography is about looking at Autumn leaves, trees and landscapes through an ethereal, golden, opaque lens.

I wrote about photographing the Autumn colours before the season began. I was looking forward to the season and trying to get an impression of Autumn perhaps through multiple exposures. Due to the lockdowns, we are having here in the UK, I think we are seeing the seasons so much more vividly. Walking through nature has certainly maintained my sanity during these worrying months.

Glenys Garnett

My mentor through this time has been Glenys Garnett. I recently watched an RPS talk she gave about her photography. She talked about how she will frequently photograph the same patch of woodland behind her house in the pursuit of wonderful dreamy images.

As she says, working in a familiar space will force your creativity. Encouraging you to make images about how you feel, and embracing abstraction. She suggests looking at the muted colours of work by American painter, Andrew Wyeth.

Looking for soft light and a subdued palette has led me to the work of Jo Stephen.

Jo Stephen

I am drawn to using creative photographic techniques as they enable me to explore my connection to nature in a way that representational photography does not always allow. … Jo Stephen

I agree, that statement sums up so simply my view that seeing is believing but believing is what we see.

These are some of her Autumn images and some of her woodland images.

Processing Misty Autumn Photography

With thanks to Jo Stephen, this is a simple technique to get that wonderful soft lighting.

Lightroom

Expose as you would normally, bringing down the highlights and increasing shadows etc
Decrease the vibrance, clarity and saturation especially green and cyan.
Increase the saturation of key colours e.g. reds and oranges in Autumn
Add a slight vignette
Transfer to Photoshop: Photo>Edit in>Photoshop

Photoshop

Open in PS
Make a duplicate layer: Ctrl J
Add Gaussian blur to the duplicate layer: Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Move slider about half way. Apply.
Add a curves adjustment layer and just lift and tweak the top of the graph.
Add a clipping mask. Rt click the adjustment layer and select clipping mask
Move the opacity slider to around 15-30%
File>Save

Lightroom

Open in LR
Adjust to suit your style. you may want to try a profile

This is one I tried earlier………….

This is a beautiful effect which I am also going to experiment using with my Pep Ventosa and multiple exposure images.

Rankin’s 2020: Sky Arts

by John Gough

Rankin has a new show on Sky Arts, which reviews the results of a photography challenge launched in the summer to document life in 2020. In the programme, (Rankin’s 2020) Rankin demonstrates how he would tackle each assignment and with two guests reviews his images and their images.

Sky Arts is now a free-to-air channel on Freeview Channel 11.

There are six parts to the series. Each episode will focus on a different category – family, fun, self, beauty, empathy and nature.

Rankin is a renowned portrait photographer, who has now diversified into fashion, advertising and film. He is best known for working with models Kate Moss and Heidi Klum as well as photographing celebrities like Madonna, David Bowie and the Queen.

Rankin describes this project:

“Photography is my life and passion and I truly believe it has the power to reveal and connect. Now we all have cameras in our pockets, I think it’s time to use them. Rankin’s 2020 is an open call to anybody who thinks they can take a great picture. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve never taken a photograph before or you’re a professional, I want to see your view of our world. Together we can document this crazy year and make something positive out of it.”

There are now two photography based programmes on Sky Arts. I have reviewed Master of Photography, and I have watched the first episode of Rankin’s 2020. I enjoyed Rankin’s interpretation of empathy and seeing how he worked. The images submitted were also refreshing, in that they did not look like traditional photography competition entries. Many had been captured on a smartphone. They were alive, immediate and compelling.

Master of Photography: Sky Arts

by John Gough

Fantastic news. Sky Arts, the Sky channel, is now available on Freeview, Channel 11. The channel started broadcasting this week, which means that we can all now get to see one of their most popular programmes: Master of Photography. A photography competition, in which contestants compete with one another to gain the coveted title and 150,000 euros.

I watched the first episode this week, on Friday at 2pm. This was a repeat from the first series broadcast in 2016. I imagine the series is shown across the schedule. However, you will need to trawl through endless repeats of Tales of the Unexpected to find it.

The format is similar to The Apprentice, Masterchef and Bake Off. Twelve contestants battle it out each week, until one is eliminated. The judges are eminent photographers and there is a guest photographer to give advice. The series has been running for four seasons, and hopefully, they will all be repeated for Freeview viewers.

Master of Photography Season 1 Episode 1

The contestants chosen from the ‘thousands’ that applied. In this episode, spent six hours shooting on the streets of Rome. Not all the candidates were familiar with street photography, so it was fascinating to watch their different styles. No doubt they were good photographers to win through and get a place in the competition, but the judges were ‘underwhelmed’ with the results.

It may have been the difficulty of street photography. Alex Webb the Magnum street and travel photographer was on hand to give advice. Street photography is 99.8% disappointment he said.

The best bit of advice, however, was kept until the end.

Shoot for yourselves, not what you think the judges are looking for.

Autumn Multiple Exposures

by John Gough

Lately because of the COVID restrictions I have had less opportunity for street photography. I don’t want to travel on a train to London, and I have decided that pubs and restaurants are off limits for me at the moment.

So I have been looking for different outlets for my photography. My first love, landscape photography is restricted because long road trips and overnight stays are out. So it is difficult to visit the Lake District and Scotland.

So I am going to go a bit abstract.

An Impression of Autumn

It is just coming into Autumn. The most beautiful time of year IMHO. The next six weeks or so are going to be just so amazing. What I want to do is photograph the leaves and the trees and the sky and capture the mood. The feeling of darkening days, and ripe fruit. Hunkering in, log fires, smoky chimney pots, mellow mists and the foreboding of winter. I want to create an impression of the Autumn I see.

As Joel Meyerowitz says:

‘Once you have a camera in your hand you have a license to see.’

Abstract allows a creative control. Some would say too much. However, the end result is unique to you. It may be crass, but it is your kind of crass. A camera can give you the license to see, but abstraction gives you the freedom to feel and express emotion.

Multiple Exposures

One of the most accessible ways of going abstract is to find the multiple exposure function on your camera. With this, you can create stunning abstracts in camera.

There are numerous videos that go into the technicals of ‘how to’ like this one.

You take several different images. These multiple exposures are then stored in the camera and merged to create a final image. Sounds complicated and technical, but it is not that difficult. Just have a go and experiment. Take 2, 3 or more images stacked on top of one another. See what works and carry on.

The most difficult part is finding Multiple Exposure on your camera’s menu!

The example above was taken in my local park. There are three exposures. Lengthening shadows on a white wall, autumn leaves and pine needles.

I think I will print my Autumn Abstracts. Stick them on a wall and then the next six weeks will be with me all winter

To see what you can achieve with this technique. Look no further than the work of Valda Bailey If you really want to get into Multiple Exposures then the Bailey Chinnery workshops are well worthwhile.

Now let’s get out there and enjoy the Autumn.

Pep Ventosa Technique

by John Gough

Pep Ventosa is a Catalan photographer who is known for his technique of creating impressionistic looking photography by taking multiple images of a subject and blending them together.

His series ‘In the Round’ featured trees which have become the lynchpin of his work. His photography, however, is now more diverse and includes urban landscapes, streetcars and street lamps.

When talking about his work he describes how:

The process mimics how we actually see: the eyes are constantly focusing on the specific details and elements of what’s in front of them and the brain then processes that visual information making the reconstruction so we perceive the world around us.

I have curated a selection of his images here.

The Pep Ventosa Technique

Pep Ventosa uses hundreds of images to create an artwork. Is it art or is it photography? He purposefully blurs the boundaries. Look at his series ‘New Faces from the Past’

Trying to replicate the technique is not easy. As my attempt above illustrates. It is not just a process of walking around a tree, taking photographs and putting them into layers in Photoshop.

A good place to start is with the glorious Glenys Garnett

Tips to Creating a Masterpiece

The subject has to be interesting enough to be deconstructed
Maintain a reference point on the subject for all the images. For example, I used the tree trunk in the image above. A 3×3 grid in the camera viewfinder is useful.
A wide angle lens is best to allow you to get closer to the subject.
I took twenty images in the image above.
Take jpgs rather than RAW to make it easier to manipulate later. Or do as I did convert them to jpg in Lightroom. Create a similar look and feel for each image and then export to Photoshop.
To transfer from Lightroom to Photoshop in one step. Select the images to be transferred in Lightroom: Photo>Edit In>Open as Layers in Photoshop.
In the layer stack in Photoshop I used a Normal blending mode with an opacity of 20%. The blending modes and opacity, however, depend on the effect that YOU want to produce.
Try keeping the camera fixed and moving the subject see below.

Your Own Style

What is exciting about using the Pep Ventosa technique is that so much is down to trial and error, which means that your images will develop into your own style.

Glenys Garnett

by John Gough

I have long been a fan of Glenys Garnett, her creative flower photography and landscape work are an inspiration.

RPS Virtual Events

I mention this because the RPS is hosting a virtual event where Glenys will be talking about creative landscapes. It will cover:

In this 60 minute presentation Glenys Garnett will give you some overview and insight into her approach to capturing and creating landscape imagery. She will share her influences and the techniques she uses both in-camera and in Photoshop to show how she goes about creating her composite landscapes.
Glenys will also explain the tools you need to make a start in developing your own creative images.

The RPS is also running an online workshop where Glenys will be talking about Making Creative Landscape Images. It is restricted to six people only, but I have written to the RPS to try and make the recordings available.

Links to the Work of Glenys Garnett

Meantime if you want to follow Glenys and sample her wonderful creative images, find her Twitter feed. There are new wonderful photographs almost every day.

To see her work I have created a Pinterest board, but it is just a sample of her vast output.

Glenys is also very generous in sharing her techniques and knowledge. You can subscribe to her YouTube feed here.

One of the things I been practising during the lockdown is to imagine a scene and then to attempt to create it. This has been more relevant during these times because our freedom of movement has been curtailed. Choosing a location, turning up and hoping an opportunity will present itself is no longer so accessible. This has made me look inward more and create with what is available.

With this in mind, as we come out of lockdown. I am going to take time to study these tutorials on YouTube and the RPS, in the hope that I can share in some of the Glenys Garnett creative magic.