J.R : 'Portraits of a Generation' J.R used a 28mm lens to photograph the portraits, and to get a up close photo of the face, J.R needed to be 10inches away from their faces, so he had to very up close to them. J.R's intentions with these portraits were to show a different side of these peoples faces(who were from Le Bosquet). J.R didn't tell the people to make any particular faces, so there wasn't any type of face J.R was intending specifically to photograph, and many of the people made scary faces to play the caricature of themselves. Then J.R put up huge posters everywhere in the bourgeois area of Paris.
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The weaving process was quite tricky at first but the more images that I weaved together, the easy it got. (1) The way that I weaved my images together was by choosing one image as my weaving base and then chose the sizes of the strips and then (leaving around a 2.5 margin at the top) began to cut vertical strips of the whole image.(2) After, with my second image I chose the sizes of my strips and cut the strips in rows horizontally, leaving no margin. (3) After that I began weaving my horizontal strips into the vertical stripped image by weaving one strip over and under the horizontal strips and then the other strip after that I weave under and over, and readapting this variation for the whole images to be completely merged with one another.
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Weaving process:
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Largest sized strips weaving
For my first weave, I used wide strips. In my weaving I wanted to start of with a 20mm width size strips to experiment with show much detail I would get with the two pictures weaved together. I think that with the larger steps, you get to identify the different parts of the face better and its quite clear to identify where the two faces are in the image and their positioning. In this image I feel like it has portrayed quite a futuristic and pixellated effect( as every revealed weave in the image displays an individual detailed part go the upper body that connect together to create a recognised image of the upper body)to the photo, displaying the two hidden faces merged together that give a eerie and bizarre atmosphere to the image but intriguing to the eye at the same time. |
Black and white strips weaving
I think that the only black and white images create a more serious effect. It might not offer as much detail to the hair for instance but it does show a lot of different shadows and tones to the faces and the lower part of the picture. I think that the simplicity of the black and white colour of the image provides a lot of contrasts and interesting shadows. |
With translucent paper, it was tricker to keep the individual strands in place with the the weaving and the tracing paper is thinner and more flimsy than normal A4 paper. Therefore It helped me to tape down each stand of weaving, with normal sellotape, to the edge of the base weaving image, to reassure that the tracing paper pieces will stay in place.
My process in weaving with the tracing paper was the exact same method with the normal A4 paper. |
These images also provide a similar atmosphere that the overlaying images above give, however I feel that this piece is more bright and includes less shadows in certain places of the face. Therefore I think that this helps to decrease the erriness to the image and bring out the more nostalgic and sweet side to the image. Another thing to notice in the image that is not too easy to notice is that in the image, my models younger self is holding a teddy bear that you can subtly see on the right shoulder of my model in her present self, and on the collar that my model is wearing from her jumper, the small arms are crossing her collar and it almost looks as if her younger self is holding her collar in this image, which presents quite a sweet and powerful effect to my models younger self and her now.
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Alma created a number of pieces where she sectioned of specific parts of her image to weave, which deforms the face and creates a sense of eeriness and uncertainty. She also uses the technique of paper weaving manually, but she also uses online resources to help with the layering and the precision.
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