4. Passport Portraiture

Look what I found...

By some miracle and pinch of coincidence, my boyfriend found a passport camera in one of his cupboards at home in Swansea. It's believed that it belonged to the Post Office which his Aunty purchased a few years ago. We're not entirely sure the age on the camera, but there is a year date ['04] written on one of the booklets. 

My last minute boyfriend, wanted to use the camera, which we didn't know if it was functional or f we had any paper, in order to take pictures for his new passport he was applying for, so he brought it up to Cardiff for me to have a look at. 

Here are some information booklets we found with the camera:

I was so fascinated with the camera! I read through all of the information booklets, so that if I did attempt taking a photographs, everything would be right. What I found fairly creepy was the old passport image that was stuck on the back of one of the booklets, we're not sure who this girl could be, or who even took the picture, but it's still very interesting to find an image like this. At least I know that the camera has worked in the past, but if it works now, we're still not sure. Just by looking at this, it's fairly obvious that using this camera will be very useful for my project! Instead of taking individual photos, it's possible to take multiple ones, instantly on one image!

So the camera was given to me to attempt to take passport photographs of my boyfriend, ready for the new passport he applied for. There was some paper still in the camera when we got it, so when we attempted to take some photographs, we used what we had. 

After thinking that all of the settings were right, mirror slide was out etc., I took the images and above are the results I got. There was clearly a problem with the paper that was in  the camera, and even after changing it to the other packet of Polaroid paper I had, I received the same, very similar results. 

The paper was out of date.

Which is how I got no results from the paper I had. Even though there is no clear image on the paper, I was still fairly fond of the results I obtained. 

After a little research, about the camera and paper etc. I managed to find a replacement paper which should work in the M403R. 

I managed to find this Fujifilm FP-100c. I managed to pick up a pack of 10 sheet for around £12 on Amazon, which I thought was quite reasonable for what it is. Plus it was very much in date! 

Well, I knew the paper was the problem. After loading the newly bought paper, I began to get some images! Above are the first few attempts, but after very briefly reading over the instructions, I failed to acquire the correct distance between subject and camera, the flash was also on the incorrect settings. 

I'm fairly happy the camera is in working order, but I also cannot believe how useful this might be for my Digital Project!

Finding this camera is pushing me towards the portraiture side of things, as much as I hate portraiture, but it is something I am ready to try.

I have attempted to use the camera to photograph objects, to try a technique which reassembles Thomas Kellner's. I have only one attempt at this given time, which is shown here on the left hand side. As you can change the settings of the camera, to either shoot four individual images, or have the same image repeated four times, I decided to go for the four individuals. After I took the first image I realised that the mirror was still between the lens and the paper, which is why there is a black square, ruining my attempt. The two images at the top, I felt worked well, even if the rest was a failure. Yes the images are slightly over exposed, I feel this might be due to the very powerful flash.

Excuse my ridiculous face

Here, I have attempted to double expose the paper. It was only a quick test, to see if I could make anything of it, but I feel it worked very well, for the first attempt. I have only double exposed the first two images. I took one single image to print four times, then I tried overlaying individual images. If I had known the results, I might have tried something a little better, or at least making it so that my face overlapped more, perhaps the images would have been better then. 

It's a start.

3. Thomas Kellner

To begin my research and progress towards my main, major project, I am going to continue with some extensive research into the work of Thomas Kellner, as he is my main, staring influence towards my entire project.

Thomas Kellner

Above is the first part of a large interview with Thomas Kellner at the Boston Athenaeum.

"His photographic assaults stretch from il Colosseo and la Tour Eiffel to Times Square and the Golden Gate Bridge, and at this point very few major American or European Cities are innocent of his fracturing gaze."

Richard Wendorf about Thomas Kellner

"I want to break manifold ways of perception to my audience. My main interests have always been in finding strong visual languages that are powerful enough to tell us something about their subjects that more "realistic" images cannot do. Right from the beginning of my studies, my basic interest was in experimental and conceptual photography. I created different pinhole series, photogram work and printings in alternative techniques, such as cyanotype, saltpaper and others.

When Kodak Germany awarded me the Young Professionals Prize, I decided on a life in art and photography. In 1997, I finally started working on the contact sheet method to visually deconstruct architectural icons. My trademark style was born. Since then, I have been shooting prominent monuments all over the world. My images are asking to challenge usual perspectives – the buildings seem to be broken apart, dancing and remind us of the vulnerability of our values and creations." Above is a short quote from Thomas Kellner's website.

"German artist Thomas Kellner tests and verifies the powerfully iconic nature of renowned landmarks through distinctive mosaic-like compositions.

Currently showing at the Kunstverein Bad Nauheim, Germany through to the 17th January, 2013 is a selection of Kellner's most important works,

Depicting such monuments as the great wall of china, la sagrada familia and the golden gate bridge in San Francisco. through the medium of photography,

Kellner creates a kaleidoscopic visual play on renowned buildings and structures by taking a series of pictures that, once assembled, recreates the

Original scene in a playfully distorted manner. the work illustrates the well-known subjects in a step-by-step and layer-by-layer approach,

Producing a de-constructed image that tricks the collective human processes of visual perception."

Above available at: http://www.designboom.com/art/photo-montages-of-famous-landmark-by-thomas-kell

ner/

42#16 San Francisco, Afternoon at Golden Gate Bridge, 2004

I am very fond of Kellner's work. It is a very different kind of photography. Even though Kellner's work is mostly architectural and focused around recognisable world wide landmarks. Kellner, very uniquely comprises one large image from a series of small frames, as basic as it might sound, Kellner really puts his all into his work. 

To begin, Kellner shoots on film, and even though this is a digital module, his work is still useful to consider. The thought that would have to go into working out when to move onto the next line for the full image, trying to keep everything in line? That's another thing, Kellner doesn't even put a lot of effort into keeping things in line, as a matter of fact, he askews the lines. 

The lines which we consider permanent, the foundations that we look at that hold structures together, by simply tilting the camera ever so slightly, Kellner breaks these lines. This is what I find most interesting about his works, how you can look at his muddle of images, and still make out exactly what his images are, only then after looking at each frame individually you notice the wrong, how everything is wrong, but everything is right. 

The fragmentation is key.

I love the cutting and sharpness of each individual frame. How it is a jigsaw that has fit together, but fit together the wrong way. 

27#07 London, Tower Bridge, 2001

Another thing, which I can really appreciate, is how Kellner works on film. His work would be so much simpler if he worked digitally; just take a couple of pictures, check back over them on the back of the camera, "Well this one might not work, so I'll take that again... This doesn't quite line up with the previous, I'll delete that one," no, Kellner works on film. This makes it that little bit more interesting to look at, to appreciate. Personally, I was not looking forward to working completely digitally, but Kellner's work, along with others, has shown that you can interpret analogue into the digital work. I also love how he's including the frame numbers along the edge of the individual images. 

I very much enjoyed looking at the works of Thomas Kellner, and I knew that this is where I wanted to start my Digital Photography Project, at this given moment, I am unsure where my work will go from here, but I'm sure with more research I will find the inspiration I need to take me to the next step.

Here is my attempt at creating images like Thomas Kellners, which I had taken last term as part of my research project.

Links

http://www.tkellner.com/thomas-kellner/thomas-kellner/the-artist/
http://www.designboom.com/art/photo-montages-of-famous-landmark-by-thomas-kellner/