Theme I based the theme of my digital collage on the feeling of having a distorted self perception and the feeling of body dysmorphia. Dysmorphia causes one to obsessively focus on their flaws and feel as if they are much more noticeable than they really are. This can often lead one to have a distorted perception of themselves and not truly know what they look like. I attempted to use the layering of faces and distortion of the image to express this feeling.
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Arthur Fellig Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee, was a photographer from New York in the 1930s and 40s. Born in Zolochiv, Galicia, he moved to New York City with his family when he was 10. He began as a freelance photojournalist in 1935, and became famous for his book Naked City which had images of car crashes, murder scenes and life on the streets of New York. In 1945 Weedee moved to Hollywood for 5 years. During this time he began creating distorted images using photography. He would place curved glass or other translucent material between the lens and the photographic paper giving the images different densities, patterns and textures. He also experimented with fixing a kaleidoscope to the end of the camera lens to create multiple images. Many of his distorted photographs were of famous people such as Salvador Dali, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. He spent the last 20 years of his life creating his distorted art.
I was inspired by Weegee’s use of distortion and wanted to incorporate a similar style into my piece. I was specifically inspired by some of the photographs he did of Salvador Dali. These were done in a way that gave the appearance of two photographs layered over each other. This gave me the idea to layer my photographs over each other for the digital college. |
Before I started taking photos for the collage I tried to visualize my ideas with sketches. I knew I wanted to layer multiple images, each in a different color over one another. I wanted to incorporate the colors pink, red, orange and blue because these were colors Francis Bacon often used. While sketching I thought it might be more interesting to do a different pose in each photo layered over each other and attempted to sketch out some pose ideas.
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I first started by setting up an area to take photos. I picked an area against a blank wall so it’d be easier to remove the background later in Photoshop. I then set up my tripod with my Canon Rebel T7 camera. Afterwards I set up my light. I used 4 different colors of light which were red, orange, pink, and blue. When I felt I had enough photos with each color I uploaded the photos onto my computer and opened them in Photoshop. I decided to use one photo from each of the four colors I took photos with. Once in Photoshop I used the quick selection tool to cut the background out of each of the photos and used the eraser tool to clean up any rough edges. Afterwards I began to layer the photos on top of each other and change the opacity. I used a clipping mask with a feather affect on each of the layers so they would be less harsh layered over each other. Once I was satisfied with how the photos were layered I distorted parts of the image such as the face and the bottom part of the photo. For the background of the photo I knew I wanted to make it a solid color because the rest of the photo was already very busy.
I decided to take a picture of a dark wall in my house so there would be a bit of texture in the background instead of being completely flat color. |
Similarities
-Used a similar color palette of red, pink, orange, and blue similar to many of Francis Bacon’s paintings. -Distorted parts of the face similar to how Francis Bacon and Arthur Fellig did. -A portrait similar to both Bacon's and Fellig's pieces Differences -Used brighter, more saturated colors than Bacon did. -Fellig used different camera lenses to get his distortion effect while I layered multiple photos over each other and distorted them with digital manipulation. |