What is paper photography?
Paper photography is when you make shapes or make paper look a certain way to create an effect. Paper photography may sound really simple, but a lot of creative ideas can be created from it. Many different photographers use coloured paper and many just use basic plain black and white paper.
I have decided to choose paper photography as my theme because i haven`t experimented with paper before in photography. Also, I think black & white photographs show more emotion, so that is another reason why i have decided to choose paper.
Here are some examples of paper photography:
These are some examples of paper photography from different artists. Personally, i really like the first 3 on the top because they have more detail than the rest. I really like paper photography because there are many ranges of styles that different photographers do. Even though paper is a very basic thing, many unique things can be created with it.
Paper photographers:
Nigel Tomm
Nigel Tomm is a 41 year old photographer and artist born in lithuania. Nigel takes photographs and crumples them up to make them look unique. I really like this style and i was thinking about doing something like that for my first shoot. He takes 3D photographs by manipulating the images by crunching and crumpling up the photos. His work is constructed and uses lighting when photographing the original photograph that has been manipulated. On most of his photos, he makes them black and white to show negative emotions and neglect which is effective.
Christiane feser
Christiane Feser was born in Germany, Würzburg in 1977. Christiane creates 3 dimensional photographs by creating 3D shapes and placing them close together to create an effect. She specializes in paper construction and she studied at the Offenbach University of Art and Design in German. All of her photographs are black and white which is different to the other photographers i have researched. Personally, i quite like the bottom right and how Christiane has shaded the circles, it creates a dimensional effect to the photograph. I would really like to create something like this for my second shoot.
Daniel Gordon
Daniel Gordon is an American artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New york. Gordon is best known for his vibrant and colourful photographs. Daniel mainly photographs images of fruits/ vegetables but he cuts out paper images of which ever fruits he is going to photograph, and places the cut out image over the real piece of fruit so it looks less realistic which i find really interesting and unique. Personally, I don`t really like Daniels style but its still good. Daniel Gordon studied at the Yale school of arts for two years.
My first shoot:
For my first shoot i am going to be working in the style of a photographer i have researched. I am going to try and recreate one of Nigel Tomms photographs because out of all of the photographers i have researched, i like his the best. In my opinion, the photographs are good because they have a crumpled effect on them. For this shoot i will need to take a photo of my friend and then print it out and try and crumple it up. I dont want it to look scruffy so i will try and do it the same as Nigels.
My Photographs:
These are the photographs i have taken today, i am going to edit my favorite one and edit into black and white. After i have edited it i am going to print it out and crumple it up to link it to paper photography. I would`ve liked to take more photographs but i didn`t have enough time. I really like the way the last 6 photographs have come out because the lighting is somewhat decent and the white background makes it look better.
Worst Photograph:
This is the worst photograph i have taken because the camera didn`t focus properly and i wanted the photograph to have more depth in it. Also, the ISO and white balance settings weren`t right on the camera which caused it to look darker than i wanted. I also didn`t want the camera to be as zoomed in as it was on this photo because i dont think it looks as good as when its zoomed out a bit more. The background looks a bit discoloured which is not what i wanted and i think thats because the ISO was not on the right setting.
Best Photograph:
This is my best photograph because i like her facial expression and how focused the image is. I think i am going to use this image for my edit to represent my final outcome for my first shoot. I like how every detail and colour is focused on the photo, I tried to get everything focused because i think it will look really nice when i make the photo black and white.
Print screen:
This is the process of how i edited my photograph into black and white. I edited it on photoplus because thats the only software we can use. I decided to edit it in black and white because i thought it would look more effective and just better overall.
My edit:
This is my image after i have edited it into black and white, I edited it in photo plus. In my opinion, i really like how this edit has come out and the quality of the image is good. I am going to print this photograph out and then crumple it so it is linked to paper photography. I think it looks better in black and white and it really captures emotion more than the original.
Final outcome for my shoot
This is the final product of my first shoot. I am very happy with the outcome of it because i feel like the photograph looks old and it gives it a unique affect. I decided to make the photograph look different to Nigel's because i didn't want to completely copy his work, so i went for an aged look for my shoot.
My second shoot:
For my second shoot i am going to find a piece of paper from the internet or i will get a plain piece of paper and write something meaningful on the paper, and then crumple it up into a ball and place it in front of a black background. I will need to make the writing big so the people looking at my photograph can see it. I really like the crumpling affect on paper because it looks damaged in a way, but it still looks photogenic and unique. I will need to change the ISO on the camera settings to make my photograph brighter because if its too dark it wont look as effective as i want it to be. I will also change the white balance on my camera so the piece of paper looks more white and so it stands out from the black background.
My photographs:
These are the photographs that i took today. I changed the ISO to 400 so it wasn`t too bright.
Worst photograph
This is my worst photograph because the lighting was too bright and it doesn`t look good
Best photographs
I chose these as my best ones because i really like the lighting and i think it looks better with it zoomed in, but i still think it looks good zoomed out too. I really like how the writing gives the photograph a deeper meaning and makes it more effective.
Edited version:
I really like how this has turned out with the black and white. I was planning on not editing it but in my opinion it looks better.
My third shoot:
For my third shoot, i am going to crumple up some paper and make triangular patterns
My photographs:
these are my photographs
My best photograph:
This is my favourite photograph because it is focused really well and it looks like a pattern instead of a piece of paper.
My worst photograph:
This is my worst photograph because the paper isn`t fully in the frame and the table is showing which i didnt want.
My final edit:
This is my final edit and