Alban Grosdidier
Alban Grosdidier's drowning project continues the theme of water as a metaphor for life and death, his shoot fits in perfectly as it is capturing what appears as drowning. Drowning is a rational and logical fear experienced by most people, it shows that as much as we need water to live it can also kill us. A life giver and taker. I'm Particularly interested in this artist due to the simplicity of the images he captures, they are clear, focused and extremely detailed. The way Grosdidier's models are positioned in the water can show fear in their faces, the fact that water ripples and air bubbles are in perfect focus demonstrates how water can literally take life right out of you. To recreate these images I ran a bath fairly deep and positioned my model in the bath, when I was ready to take the images I asked him to submerge himself under the water the way the artist does. I felt this showed how life e.g. job, mortgage, relationships can get on top of someone and make them feel as though they are drowning.
Alyssa monks is 'blurring the line between abstraction and realism by layering spaces. She uses semi transparent filters e.g. Glass, steam and water. Alyssa Monks' paintings are all extremely detailed and realistic oil paintings. The subjects of all her images are a girl behind glass which is either steamed up or it has water droplets. The paintings themselves are extremely large scale allowing her to put extremely small details like light reflections etc onto the water droplets. The paintings are all light in the foreground made up of skin tones with white highlighting steam and water, this brightens the image and draws the eye in. She positions her subject slightly to the side of the frame making the most of the negative space.
I feel as though her images represent suffering and the images allow the viewer to feel the painting and identify with the subject. The expression on the subject's face shows pain and suffering, this is the impression I get from the paintings.
To take my images I positioned my model behind a big piece of clear glass which I had wet or steamed. I used a darker lit room and the flash on my camera to light my subject for the shot. I felt like this set more of a mood. I took multiple images though droplets, steam and flowing water to create differences between my images and Monks' paintings and between each of my edits. To edit my images I simply cropped them and slightly edited the brightness and contrast as I felt no more editing was required due to the clarity and focus of the existing images. I used a plain background to emphasise the subject, it also meant that I could create negative spacing in my images due to positioning of my model.
I feel as though her images represent suffering and the images allow the viewer to feel the painting and identify with the subject. The expression on the subject's face shows pain and suffering, this is the impression I get from the paintings.
To take my images I positioned my model behind a big piece of clear glass which I had wet or steamed. I used a darker lit room and the flash on my camera to light my subject for the shot. I felt like this set more of a mood. I took multiple images though droplets, steam and flowing water to create differences between my images and Monks' paintings and between each of my edits. To edit my images I simply cropped them and slightly edited the brightness and contrast as I felt no more editing was required due to the clarity and focus of the existing images. I used a plain background to emphasise the subject, it also meant that I could create negative spacing in my images due to positioning of my model.