Helsinki10

Tuesday 27.04.10 me and my photo class took the trip to Stavanger to visit Rogaland kunstmuseum. There was an exhibition called Helsinki10 there. It was photos picked out from 10 artists from Finland. The guide told us about most of the pictures and they all had really different expressions, I´m pretty sure when I say that almost everyone could find a picture they liked there. 

After the exhibition, our teacher told us to look at how you can use a picture. You can use it for art, documentary and reports for example. From the pictures at the exhibition, we learned that sometimes it´s hard to tell the difference between the three. To use a picture for art is easy to know what is. It could be to decorate or just for the arts. Pictures used for documentary could be to explain for example a process and a picture used in reports can be used to inform, perhaps in an article or something similar. 

The picture above is a little manipulated, it´s two pictures put together. All the bright colors make a different impression according to where you´re standing.

This was the picture that caught most of my attention. It´s taken by Ilkka Halso in 2004. The message from it is about nature and how we´re destroying it by trying to control it. I think.. But this picture is also an example of a picture used to report. Maybe it´s a suggestion of how the future´s gonna look like?

The picture underneath is a part of a picture taken by Susanna Majuri. Her pictures was very interesting cause she worked with water. Most of these pictures were taken in a pool and almost all of them had strong female characters in them. This might be a message she wants show us.

Photo of the week! (17)

During the last few weeks me and my friend Anette have been making a paper dress for a project. During a project like that you always take pictures to document the work process and then I took the one above. I´ve chosen this one as the photo of the week because it´s really eye-catching and elegant. I´ve played a little with it in photoshop using the filter called "watercolors".
Camera - Cellphone Nokia E71

Photo of the week! (16)

This is a updated photo of my kitten. Technically spoken this isn´t the best photo, but if you look at the lucky shot and not the technical, it´s really good. Spiff´s just chilling in the shadow when the sun finally came out one day.
Camera - Cellphone Nokia E71

Drypoint

For the last couple of weeks we´ve been working on something called drypoint. It´s a printing technique where you carve the chosen image into a plate with a needle, like shown on the picture above.


The idea behind my picture is sort of spitted up. First of all we were allowed to draw anything we liked mostly, which is really rare in a school assignment, so I wanted something a little unrealistic, but also real. Therefor I created a tiny fantasy picture where I made sizes matter and unreal elements play their part. I like pictures where there are a lot going on, so I tried my best.


In front there´s a tiny tree, and right behind/beside it, there´s a huge butterfly (size matters!). I also have birds and stars all around to create life in it. I desided to frame the whole thing by carving out the ends.

Drypoint is also in the intaglio family. When you carve into the plate and roll it with thick black ink, it will sink into the carved lines with some help from warmth. After that you wipe of all the ink to get a smooth surface before you print it on a piece of paper that´s been lying in water. You can use this link to see how it´s done.

I´m pretty sure that a lot of artists use this technique for their art, but the one I always remember best is Rembrandt. He was one of the first ones to make prints like this. His drypoint prints was often very detailed and he mostly used black ink. You can read about Rembrandt here. Drypoint was invented by the Housebook master. 

Personally I liked this assignment. I´d never tried it before, but it turned out pretty good in my opinion. If you have the right directions and equipment, you should go for it. Printing is always exciting cause you never know exactly how it´s gonna turn out before you´ve actually printed it. You can also create different expressions by just changing the color of either the ink or the paper. 

Through the last weeks I´ve learned a lot about drypoint in the best way possible - actually making one. It´s possible to learn something by reading about it, but there´s nothing that´s more fun and educational as to actually do it. I´ve also learned more about what an intaglio print is. (it´s when the ink lies in the carved out lines and copies on to the paper when you print it.)

Photo of the week! (15)

I took this picture the day I managed to lock my keys inside my car without having an extra one (not even at home). I stood there waiting for my dad to come rescue me and I saw the reflections of a tree on my car. I edited it dark in photoshop to show my panic and dark thoughts at that moment.

Camera - cellphone E71

Photo of the week! (14)

Nature mixed with materials and huge details.
Camera - Nikon D40

Photo of the week! (13)

Fairytale reflections!
Camera - Nikon D40