Locating - Personal Brief - Week One

This week, I decided to spend time starting my personal brief, so I could run both projects alongside each other. I felt that doing this would allow me to better develop my work and bounce ideas between each brief. 

Whilst researching into Andy Warhol in the library, I came across Boring Postcards - PHAIDON and was instantly inspired by the photographs I discovered inside. Presenting 155 comically dull postcards, Martin Parr tackles with wit and irony and this is what caught my eye straight away. From focusing on the unexpected, Parr takes their boringness and creates strangely beautiful pieces of art. I have chosen to study the architectural photos in particular, developing the shapes and structures of the subjects, to produce designs and patterns. What would happen if I took the subject out from being the main focus and made it into a collection of simple shapes? How would it change the original photograph? 

I think this route will also allow me to combine my research on Andy Warhol with this project; incorporating some of his concepts and process, whilst also experimenting with how I can combine architecture with blocks of colour. 

After taking a similar collection of photographs around the city, I am already excited about where this project will go. Looking through my photographs, I'm really impressed with the shapes I have discovered in unusual parts of the city and the structures which I can manipulate to create lines and colour blocks. 

I really want to use Photoshop as the main medium within this project. It is a program which I haven't had much previous experience with and I hope it will not only improve my understanding of it, but also create a new dynamic to my work and allow me to push myself artistically.  

What I have found most intriguing is what happens when I crop and duplicate images. I am able to hone in on a particular section of the photograph and produce a new shape from this. 

I've also spent time creating simple line drawings which are focusing on the structures within the buildings, compared to the block shapes. I really love the abstract aspect this brings to my work and enables me to manipulate the subject even further. 

Over the next week, I hope to continue exploring the possibilities of my images. I plan to experiment with different forms of layering, to enable me to further study the patterns within the photographs, as well as develop the shapes already formed.