ContextChristoffer Relander is a photographer that likes to experiment with taking images of nature and in cooperating them with faces.
He was born in Finland December 1986 and grew up on the countryside of Ekenäs. He had an interest in art from an early age He served in the Finnish Marines in 2008-2009. After this, he reconnected his love for art by becoming a full-time photographer. He now has gallery representations in the USA, Asia and Europe. His work is featured in Mona Gallery – NC, USA. Christoffer Relander was inspired by the art movement of surrealism which has been developed by the Dadaism movement in the 1920’s. Surrealism art are usually abstract and expressed through experimenting with your imagination. They usually combine objects together which shouldn’t normally go together and that’s why surrealism is often associated with the subconscious areas pf the mind. The art movement often made little sense as it was usually trying to depict a dream or random thoughts. Relander does this when she puts human figures along with natural objects such as trees, he blends them together as if they are one. |
Analysis
What can I see?
In this image, I can see that it has a clear white coloured background. The dominant image you see is an image of a right hand, with the fingers spread out and slightly slanted towards the right side. Inside the hand, you can see a picture of a face inside the hand with his eyes closed as well as leaves/flowers and branches which, adds texture to the image. On the fingertips of the hand, the colour is darker and black so you can clearly see the finger nails, it is the dark hair of the face. The whole picture is black and white. On the right side of the wrist area, I can see some petals.
Feelings & Mood |
Composition |
Relander has named this piece ‘sleep’ because it shows a picture of someone with their eyes closed and sleeping. I chose this image because it looked interesting, I liked the way that he has Photoshop this image, he has morphed the face inside of the hand. This picture makes me feel very relaxed, I think Relander decided to put the hand in that position because it is a position your hand would be in if you were sleeping and you can imagine that hand hanging from the side of your bed. It is a very calm atmosphere, as if you’re dreaming and you see trees and petals with a glimpse of light. On contrast it may also remind people of death and the time when you ‘sleep’ and not wake up. This could be because all the dark areas could be seen as the blood inside our hands and the light shades could represent us fading away. In this case, the trees and light would represent you going to heaven i.e. the sky and the flowers could be people giving their respects.
Colour & Mood In this piece of work, Relander has changed the filter to a black and white colour. He has chosen muted colours and this makes the image have a soft element to it. He has also used levels to vary the brightness different parts of the image. The dominant colour in this image is a light grey, this is because when the images are black and white, and the mid-tone colour is slightly grey. The shaded grey colour is the colour of the majority of the image, which is the face.
Texture & PatternIn this image, Relander has used a repetitive pattern of a tree full of flowers and leaves on it, but the way that they are positioned is that some petals are overlapping others and it looks like he has used layering. In the palm section of his hand, he has layered it a lot and you can barely see any gaps to show the light, this makes the face look like it was moulded by lots of petals, this is contrast to the actual smoothness of the face so by doing this he has created a reflective texture.
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When I first looked at this image, my eyes looked towards the centre to see the light-toned areas of the image where I could see the face. This is because the nose is very big and there is a darker tone to show the shadow of the nose. Next, my eyes look towards the fingertips as it is the darkest part of the image, this makes the image very clear that it is a hand as the edges are outlined. Then my eyes look towards the wrist area because the wrist is very bare compared to the rest of the hand, it's an area where most of the petals are more distributed and moving in a direction down her arm.
Light & ToneThe light is coming from just underneath the thumb and mainly near the upper wrist area. This is because it is an area where the petals are spaced out so you can see the gaps which I assume is the light. The face inside of the hand has a lighter tone and the fingertips have a darker tone as it is the hair but because is it on the edges, it makes the face stand out more which adds more depth to the image. The light gives a peaceful mood.
What have I learnt and how I will use it?
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Context & Analysis of Hinke Schreuders
ContextHinke Schreuders was born on 1st December 1969 who now works and lives in Amsterdam in Holland, as an artist. I think that Schreuders is also inspired by surrealism as he has put a modern twist on his work by using embroidery on the paper. He has experimented with surrealism and he has used embroidery on his work which is quite different to many artists these days. He has done many art shows throughout the years in Holland. He takes images which seem very old, like 1950’s photos which seem very vintage and uses embroidery in different patterns on top of the image and creates a very intricate piece of work.
What Can I see?In this image, I can tell that the genre of this image is portraiture which has been influenced by surrealism. I can see a woman whose body is facing east but her face is facing the person who is viewing the image. The woman’s face is slightly bronze coloured face and she has her eyes closed. She has really bright red lips which has been sewn on to her lips. The background of the image has big, elongated diamond shaped stiches which are in a dark brown colour. Throughout the face and the shoulder, there are some stiches of pieces of string which have been stitched on the face in different directions in a gone of white colour. In some areas of the face, he has sewn in the same area to make a big dot of stitches which I assume he used these places as starting spaces.
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Feelings & MoodOn the whole, the image looks like he re-created a dot-to-dot image on the woman’s face. This image makes me feel quite hurt because the girl looks like she is being made into something. The girl has her eyes closed and this could show how uncomfortable she is. From the way that she is positioned it seems that the lines are restricting her to go forwards as if the lines are pulling her back. The use of the sepia effect can tell us that the image is quite old and I think it represents how women were restricted from doing certain things back in the 1950’s even when they wanted to.
CompositionThe focal point of the image, is in the middles left of the image where the red lips are. I think this is the focal point because it is the only area with a bold colour whereas the rest of the image has a slight sepia colour to it. The second place my looks to is the face as I am following the embroidery lines across the face. Then my eye looks down towards the bottom left of the image where there is a lot of stiches together. This image is assymertical as there is more embroidery on the left side than the right side. I think the artist has designed this image to spread it our in the shape of a diamond or a triangle. He did this by making sure that we see all the important part of the image.
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Light & ToneIn this image, the light is coming from the right hand side of the image. I can tell thins because this is one of the lightest parts of the image is on her cheek. This could represent the fact that she wants to step out of the norm but she has to return back to her usual ways which is why I think the left hand side of the image s dark and thins could represent how dull it is.
Colour & MoodThe dominant colour used for this image is a light bronze colour which is very subtle. This colour makes the image seem very old-fashioned. I think Schreuders was trying to represent how woman were treated back in the 1950’s and how they weren’t allowed to do certain jobs or things that they wanted to do. They were always seen in a single perspective but it’s like he is showing how many women were pulled back and made sure they were still in the norm. Schreuders has used a bold red colour for the lips and faded creamy colour for the strings which are contrasting colours compared to the bronze coloured face.
Texture & PatternIn this image, the image of the woman looks very old and rusty and this gives it an antique feeling. The use of embroidery has made the pattern repetitive in the fact that he is using lines but he is using them in random directions so in the bottom left side of the image, it may have a corroded texture.
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What Have I Learnt & How will I use it
- I have learnt that the tone of the image can reflect how the image is perceived to the audience.
- I have also learnt that it’ll be a good idea to use embroidery for my images and I could in-cooperate Schreuders work with Relanders work together.
- I need to think about how I am going to position the embroidery and focus on composition.