research: Dinh Q Le

This week I have done more research on photo weaving. I researched Dinh Q Le. I find his work to be astonishing. The way he weaves his photographs together is different from anything I have seen before, and I find myself drawn to the image to decipher what is being conveyed. He does not weave all parts of the image together, he only weaves parts that appear to be more important together, then he skips some strips in less prominent areas.

Dinh Q Le

  Dinh Q Le
Dinh Q Le
Dinh Q Le

I have had a hard time narrowing down and pinpointing exactly what I want my images to mean. I ultimately would like to weave my perspectives together to create an image that portrays personal experiences and what I see in life in new ways, but this means that all images i've ever taken could be used. I could use people, places and things. The more I think about it, the more I am leaning towards just using portraits and landscapes in order to show my upbringing, my perspective, and my environment and how I react to it or how it has changed.

spring break progress

Dad Mom

Me Taylor

  Grand Ole Opry Broadway, Nashville

Fall Creek Falls

Fall Creek Falls

Over spring break I traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, Nashville, Tennessee, and Topeka, Kansas. I shot a lot of images while traveling with the idea of juxtaposition and comparison in mind. I think the idea of comparisons and differences in the images that I weave or combine together is something I want to explore with the remainder of this project. I enjoy noticing differences between environments that I encounter or live in, as well as people in my life. I am interested in shooting more portraits of people who are roommates and people who have been in long relationships to see similarities and differences between them.
I like the portraits I took of my mom and dad because they show more personality. I am most likely going to mirror one image so my parents are facing each other before I weave them together. I think I am going to weave people together and places panels on top of other photos for nature combinations.
I am leaning and finalizing my concept more as I shoot and combine more.

more shooting

I finished another 13x19 photo weaving and learned a few more things:

• avoid using glasses when shooting in the studio; the glare on the glasses does not translate well when combining two photos together
• try to keep the two photos of the figure the same size
• shoot more of the head and less body of the model
• do not overlap the position of the figure in the two chosen photos 

While I feel that I should keep the size of the model the same in both photographs, it does not bother me that much in this weaving. I feel the figure if more visible than my last one, and that the two figures are more recognizable. I do not like how the figures overlap. Before weaving the images together I thought that they would not overlap as much as they did. I will have to make the two positions more drastic before doing the next photo weaving.

I would like to also expand my weaving techniques by trying out more of Isabel M. Martinez's technique. I feel that using her technique will allow me to combine two architecture and landscape images together to more effectively convey a juxtaposition of design of buildings and land over time.

Next week I am traveling to St. Louis, Missouri, Nashville, Tennessee and Topeka, Kansas for spring break. I am excited to photograph different landscapes so I can compare them to the photos I have taken here in Manhattan, Kansas. I will also be seeing family and friends, so I will have the opportunity to photograph more head shots and different positions of friends in order to create more photo weavings. I would like to photograph multiple people so I can combine two different people in the same weaving. By shooting different landscapes and people I will be able to reveal differences that would not be seen if the images were simply placed next to each other.

 David Samuel Stern

 David Samuel Stern

 Isabel M. Martinez

 Isabel M. Martinez

 Isabel M. Martinez

work and research cont.

   

I recently finished a bigger 13x19 photo weaving and learned a couple of things:

• the smaller the strips of paper are, the more visible the images I am weaving together are
• the image in the back is more recognizable than the second one I am cutting up and weaving in to it
• if the subject has their eyes open in both photographs it is easier to recognize that there are two different photographs
• if he subject is facing a different way in each photograph it is easier to recognize two photographs

I have learned from the first weaving and am going to weave together two separate images shot with more drastic shadow and different facial expressions in hopes that the two will be recognizable when the weaving is complete.

 

I hope that because the two faces are not in the same place that they will both show up equally and viewers will be able to recognize two figures.

Alivia recently shared with me the artist Isabel M. Martinez (http://www.immartinez.com/index.html) because she found her work relevant to what I have been doing in 626. I am very happy she shared Martinez's work with me because it has made me think about photo weaving differently, and has made me practice new ways of merging images together.

 Isabel M. Martinez The Weekend #12

Her series, The Weekend, is done by placing strips of images on top of another whole image. I found this method of merging images together to be interesting, so I tried it out on my own.

I feel that the two images I chose, of a tent and a lake which were shot at the same location, would be best to test this method out with because they are similar, but tell different parts of the mood and feeling of camping at a lake. Next time I try this out I will use two images that were shot at different locations at different times to see what meaning that can convey. This method gives more of a glimpse into how nature and how people change, and can also hide parts of a photograph or subject as well. I will continue working with both of these methods in order to convey a sense of distance, change in feeling, and a feeling of hiding something from the viewer in my work.