Statement of Intent
Faćade has two varying interpretations, the first being that Facade is the principal front of a building, that faces onto a street or open space. On the other hand, Faćade can be interpreted as a deceptive outward appearance. In response to this, I’m going to take photos inspired by William Eggleston, he focuses on colours and how they can accentuate an object.
Mindmap
William Eggleston
Eggleston uses colour to show the development and transformation, to show change he used photography techniques such as portraiture, monochrome, and still life. Switching from black and white to colour, his response to the vibrancy of postwar consumer culture and America’s bright promise of a better life paralleled pop art’s fascination with consumerism. Eggleston captures how ephemeral things represent a human presence in the world while playing with the idea of experience and memory and our perceptions of things to make them feel personal and intimate.
He studied art for about six years at various colleges but never actually graduated. While at University, he was introduced to photojournalism and very much inspired by Robert Frank’s photo book The Americans, published in 1959 in the United States.
When Eggleston was taking photos, artists had free reign to try any type of photography they wanted. Other photographers that were popular at the same time as Eggleston were Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, they are both street photographers, Friedland focused on Social landscapes whereas Winogrand captured social issues. Eggleston’s photography later inspired the work of Alex Prager, Alec Soth and Juergen Teller. Most of their work is portraiture, which gives us a better representation of how social issues are being portrayed but they cover them up with a photo.
Technical
These photographers link to my project as they use aspects to cover up current issues. Although my photoshoot is Paper Abstraction, I still use the idea of faćade as a concept of not telling the whole story, my photography is showing how one piece of paper can show so many things. Technically my photos are very different from Eggleston, but they are also very similar as we both focus on colour. This is quite an easy but interesting theme as colour can really make an object stand out from the background. When I had a day taking photos for an exam, I focused on colour, most of my photos were of doors or cars, this interested me because it opened my eyes more and made me more aware of colour.
Eggleston’s work is very unique to him because it is quite artificial, the colours are very vibrant and make up the photos, which differentiates him from other photographers. The weather and lighting play a big part in creating a mood in his photos, pathetic fallacy in the literary term for it but his photos are visually quite demanding, they require a lot of time and effort to perfect.
Visual
Eggleston’s work uses sharp, geometric shapes that create a border for objects captured in a photo, these sharper lines can really
– How have they been composed/arranged? What effect does this have on the composition as a whole?
– What do you like about the style/aesthetics? Be specific and explain your answer
Conceptual
Inspiration
Visual Analysis
I analysed this photo taken by William Eggleston because the colours harmonise together perfectly and this interested me because it is very unique as it is difficult to find similar colours to an object you already have.
Paper Abstraction
Brendan Austin
Tamara Lorenz
Green
Turquoise
Blue
Purple
Neutral
Takeaway Point
My photos were inspired by multiple photographers, one being James Welling, who looks at textures in different materials, this inspired me to crease up my paper and use different coloured lights at different angles, some creases became more noticeable and created shadows along the paper.