NARRATIVE
ARTIST RESEARCH
LEONARDO DA VINICI- "THE LAST SUPPER"
PABLO PICASSO - "GUERNICA"
Vinci is considered a cultural icon and a genius. As well as a painter he also practised the art of sculpting. His painting 'Mona Lisa' is without saying the most famous portrait to exist. Furthermore the painting above 'The Last Supper' is the most reproduced religious painting of all time. The narrative of this oil painting is pretty self explanatory to most people- in the New testament Judas betrays Jesus which leads to him being brutally crucified. You can see in the picture on all the apostles faces they have just discovered this news.
Picassos work is definitely worthy of more than one mention as it fits in both the theme abstract AND narrative. His mural 'Guernica' made an impact as a powerful political statement as it was named after the town that was bombed during the Spanish civil war by Nazi planes resulting in over hundreds of casualties. The painting reflects the tragic true story as it depicts death and destruction. Picasso wanted to make an anti- war declaration and did this by choosing his materials very carefully. He deliberately painted in black and white and chose a paint that was matte as possible for he didn't want any distraction taken away from the real message of the artwork.
PHOTOGRAPHER RESEARCH
EDWARD MUYBRIDGE
Muybridge was a 19th century english photographer who is recognised for pioneering moving image, he is important because he discovered the middle ground in between still photography and recorded movement. In the image on the left named - "The Horse In Motion" he demonstrated the first example of chronophotography which was a method to record the passing of time. I recognise this as a instance of the theme narrative as anyone looking at the cabinet cards could deduce they told a story regarding this particular horses gait.
DUANE MICHALS - "PARADISE REGAINED"
American Michals "Paradise regained" reveals two people in a mundane office environment gradually get taken over by a copious selection of plants. I personally believe the last photo has a very Adam and Eve feel as the subjects become totally naked admisdt this jungle like scene where everything is stripped back and raw- a large contrast to the first image.
Photographer Michals specialises in photo sequence and loves to tell a story- more fiction rather than documentary like. I really loved his determination to not fall victim to the limitations of a camera. His work has personally inspired me to start telling more storys with my photos.
MY NARRATIVE SHOTS
Due to having to sell my old camera to purchase my new one and my Sony A7r2 taking around three weeks to arrive I was without a form to shoot images with. This resulted in unfortunately not being able to plan my photos as much as possible. I decided to use what ever scenery was available to me to form a narrative series of photos. I individually shot the plants on my windowsill like portraits and then took one final landscape photo of them to combine them all together. Whilst not necessarily being a viewable story it shows whoever takes a photo albeit of the same subject- different photographers / angles or effects will create a different narrative to any subject matter.
I love the idea of creating a series of photos and I wish to keep everything Ive learnt from this narrative theme and channel it in to my next shoots.
The image quality of this camera is so superb i didn't feel the need to do much editing I simply processed two out of the five images into black and white to create an aesthetically pleasing effect so the eyes glide over the photos.
In the future i shall certainly plan my shoots better so they can be more effective and generate more productive and cleaner results.
I shot these with my Sony mirrorless with a 50mm 1.8 lense. I kept the settings at a large aperture to produce a shallow depth of field which produces a lovely bokeh in the background. As we move towards spring Im finding the light were gaining creates a beautiful backdrop and much sharper images.
