Using What You Got

Inventory

Old negatives from high school
Some prints from high school
First set of photogram prints
Tests from the second set of photogram prints
Pinhole prints
Portraits of Cassey
DOF prints and negatives
Many prints of Carley/owl combo
Test strips
Mat Board

Brainstorming List

Animal Eyes
Morphed animals and people
3D environmental awareness project
Collage of Carley and owl
Animals in jars to display
Supernatural effects on animal pictures (solarizing and other developing ideas)
Water movements
Animals in unnatural environments
Collage of animal using animal shots
Animals in night portraits (sandwich or double exposure)
Trapped animals (using selective developing)
Changing eyes in people and animals
Supernatural childhood play areas (developing methods)
Develop animals then use double exposure in pinhole camera
Using photogram jars over animals
Faces with different parts from different animals
Paper negatives of animals shots
Drowning animals
Eyes in darkness
Split prints with halves of faces
Weaving torn prints of animals together to merge them
Transfer images onto pieces of wood to show woodland animals
Use transfers to merge images
Use transfer to place images onto jars
Transfer images to inside of jars

Trials

In my initial trials I found that I wasn't pleased with the ideas I had originally planned to approach. I kept trying different ideas that I had brainstormed and I ended up discovering a method that worked well for what I had in mind. I wanted to see how the split prints with 2 different faces would look, so I chose two negatives that were somewhat similar in shape and size and performed a double exposure on the photo paper. I burned the left half of one exposure and the right half of the other to create a merging point halfway through each photo. The trials are below. With the initial success of these shots I decided I would continue the series by using different animals to get a total of 8 prints completed. I want to use another roll of film to obtain more options to use, just in case the shots I don't have currently don't match up in the way that I am envisioning.

Artists to Research

Jerry Uelsmann-Using his ways of merging photos through multiple exposures could lead me to different ways of manipulating my photos.
Annette Messager-I could use her methods of collaging in order to merge my photos into one collective piece.
Andreas Serrano- His works speak in a way that the other pieces didn't. They show a clear message and that could possibly inspire me to send my own message through my art.

Approaches to Ideas

Animal Eyes: 1) Focus on just the eyes and frame them using mat board making the audience try to figure out which eyes came from which animal 2) Make the eyes come out of trees or darkness using multiple exposures 3) Swap the eyes of different animals onto different bodies using multiple exposure
Animals in Jars: 1) Use photogram and animal shots in multiple exposure to have animals be in jars 2) Use shots of water vases and jars and expose animals to be inside those 3) Use actual jars to display animal portraits, possibly manipulated in darkroom to show bending

Format Plans

For this project I have been playing with the idea of pairings, so I wanted to attempt to make the viewer think about this in the layout of the series. I want the pairings to match up, so that the same face is between the two photos as the series progresses.

Final Piece

These pieces are the result of MANY trial and error runs. I found that my original expanded ideas were not going to be able to work with as many of the negatives as I had hoped. I decided to try my other ideas that I had brainstormed to see whether I could find something I would enjoy doing or not. I tried several before I moved to the split faces idea. I went ahead and tried it to see what would happen, and I was ecstatic with the result. I had found my project. I moved to try and create pieces further, but also ran into a problem. The faces of animals or people are very difficult to line up at times. I attempted to reshoot, not just using animals but also using inanimate objects. I took photos of trees, plants, and anything else I saw in nature that looked like a face. None of the images matched in the way that others had though.

In the darkroom I set up 2 enlargers with different negatives, sizing them to match the facial features properly. I created test strips for each photo seperately, then I attempted to merge the two photos. I used dodging and burning techniques where I exposed only one half of the paper at a time under each enlarger. It also took patience because if the enlargers were even slightly off in size, or if the easels were not placed perfectly, it would lead to white spots or too much overlap. In the end I found images that worked to gether both as individual pieces and grouped as a whole.

If I had more time and money I would love to go out and reshoot more animals and people to be able to expand upon this project. It had its difficulties and setbacks, but overall I am pleased with the outcome.