Rentsch & Parker Response

After looking at Rentsch’s and Parker’s work, I decided to take inspiration from both artists and combine them to create a new response which reflects the work of both women.

These images show natural material being placed in a matter which makes them to appear slightly like weaponry, which is what Rentsch’s work showed her to do. Instead of using florals as in my previous response, I decided to keep to minimal materials and neutral colours to reflect the work of Parker.

To keep these images as natural as possible, the only editing filter I applied was the ‘Auto Contrast’ tool on Photoshop CS5; this created a balance between the light and dark shades of colour within the photo and enhanced the natural features of my subject further.

Response: ‘Harmless’ by Sonia Rentsch

After my initial critical studies of Rentsch’s work, I decided to respond to her photography by using a similar aesthetic to hers. Rentsch creates weaponry out of organic material to diffuse the power and danger of them. Using this idea, I decided to use organic material as a substitute for alcohol.

Alcohol is an immense part of Western culture and normality for many people. Teenagers and young adults are prone to effects which are in some ways slightly more dangerous than adult drinkers. New studies show that the brain continues to fully develop through teenage years and into young adulthood. During these years, those parts of the human brain which control the expression of emotions and seek gratification mature sooner than that parts which control detailed decision making. Studies have also shown that alcohol abuse can negatively affect memory by 10%.

My images show a clear bottle in the shape of a wine bottle with plant material places around or inside it in different formations. The thesis behind my subject is to show that alcohol is “empty” and can be replaced in one’s life with more beneficial and enjoyable matter.

Editing my Images

This first image shows the plant materials I used as my subject for my photography. I have decided not to edit this image as using flash on my bridge camera provided a bright photograph. Refining or editing this image any further would result in the details of the plant material being lost through the editing.

Rentsch’s photography shows the plant material in the most natural form, and as a relevant response to her work I wanted to carry out the same effect on my own work.

This view of the flowers is from above, as I wanted to give the viewer a better view of the flowers and the details in the natural material.

This image shows the flowers in the container I placed them in in order to respond to Sonia Rentsch’s work. To emphasise the imagery I wanted to create by using flowers as a substitute for alcohol, I placed them in a bottle used to store drinks in in the home. The shape of the bottle is similar to that of a wine bottle and the clear glass provides a view of the inside of the bottle, providing me with flexibility in the way I chose to use the flowers within the bottle.

The only way I have edited this image is by using the ‘Auto Contrast’ tool in Photoshop, to provide a small level of contrast. Using this filter made the image slightly brighter that originally present, making the subject stand out to the viewer more, as opposed to the original image.

Final Gallery of Images

 

‘Harmless’ by Sonia Rentsch

Rentsch is known for her ability to develop clever ideas from intelligent concepts. Her latest work displays her diminishing the power of modern weaponry by constructing them from natural plant material. Through her strive to find the “beauty in everything”, even dangerous explosives and guns, she demonstrates the power of nature rather than life threatening weapons.

Natural Forms – Photograms

The images shown above are photograms of natural forms such as leaves, dried plants, petals and twigs. I exposed these materials on to photosensitive paper for around three seconds to create the images shown above. Further developments of these images could include reverse photograms.

Natural Forms

These images were taken at the back of my school and are images I took of natural forms around me. I took a total of 40 images and selected the ones I was pleased with the most to edit and refine in Photoshop. With all of these photos, I have done a combination of chaning the contrast of the images, changing the curve of the images, and using Aut-Tone to change the tone of the images slightly.

I wanted to keep m photos more on the natural side to keep with the Natural Forms heading, so I decied not to do anything very extravogent with the images, and instead just tried to focus on editting them in a way that would make them stand out and give more detail to the shapes and patterns that occur in them.