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elena oganesyan artist analysis
elena oganesyan artist analysis
elena oganesyan artist analysis
elena oganesyan is a self taught photographer who mainly focuses on the form of identity, more specifically she focuses on the concept of hidden identity, and the choas of hers.
she is self taught and found interest in the idea of expressing ones-self through the idea of photography.
her work consists of mostly portrait photographs using the method of long exposure, "allowing her to express herself rather than telling the stories." the idea of this technique is something i generally admire about her work; through photography she is able to display and express herself and her identity and story instead of 'telling it'.
"people tend to hide their innermost feelings. we don't like to express them in daily life. through photography i can connect with my own hidden fears and desires. i can fix my inner chaos." - elena oganesyan
the idea of how oganesyan portrays and views identity and expression through photography is what i find fascinating and absorbing about her work because not only does she express her identity through her
photographs, but she also communicates with her 'inner most feelings and inner chaos'. her projects tell stories, which is entrancing as not only is it her stories and feelings but through her photography, but it is also our stories, feelings and identity. the idea that we can we can be able to also communicate and resonate with them ourselves, and understand her, 'letting light and movement to pass through the seconds of long exposure'.
the concept of photography and identity and art, is that it the idea of ambiguousness, and having several meanings and identities makes the people who view it captivated as we can have our own perception and identification of what we see and the meaning ot it. to her, the method of long exposure photography creates
something that never existed, revealing the suprising and mysterious fragments of life.
her use of long exposure makes her work seem not only alluring in terms of its appearance and the way it is displayed onto the camera, but the general idea of how it is able to express and capture so much meaning and thought and life / energy behind it. the technique helps capture the moment and emotion through the camera, also capturing the energy of the photograph.
elena oganesyans' long exposure work also effects the lighting and display of her images and portrays a dream - like photography.
the artist mainly focuses on taking portrait photographs and portrait photography which i think is a good idea because it is focusing on her, the person and the identity of herself.
"to escape reality or expand it, i let light and movement to pass through the seconds of long exposure" - elena oganesyan
i wanted to focus my first hidden photography themed photoshoot on her work because her use of long exposure in her portrait photographs present the movement and life though the camera and really portrays the meaning of identity successfully.
overall, i personally find her work so captivating and unique, and inspiring as it is also ideal considering defines and really expands the subject of identity and the concept of hidden identity and expressing yourself and your emotions / story within a photograph.
focusing on the appearance and the way elena oganesyans' projects turn out, the unique technique of long exposure is something that i personally genuinely find so fascinating and refreshing, partially because i think it makes the photographs seem as if it is from something out of a dream or an old movie, and the motion of the subject bring life into the images as if life and energy, and the movement of life is illustrating itself within the still life photographs.
i personally am inspired by the method of long exposure she uses as a signature of her work because it looks like the image is being somewhat mirrored or overlapped and over layered.
i also find it interesting how certain pieces of her work are filtered differently, but still keeping the grainy, low saturation and slightly discoloured filtered effect.
her work helps not only her, but us, communicate with our inner feelings and core emotions, which is one of the many things that make her work so much more captivating and alluring, because linking back to the idea and concept of hidden identity we can express what we feel and what we are thinking without the ability to put those thoughts and emotions into specific words, however turning them into an image, photograph, instead.
this is why i decided to focus on her as inspiration following the concept of hidden identity, considering and taking in the idea and portrayal of her work and how she explores her own identity and feelings and emotions through a camera lens.
for me, her work almost immediately appealed to me as i looked into her work and the conception of it, due to having a relation to the various meanings behind it, feeling as if i can resonate with her work and illustrate my own emotions through her pieces of work. in my mind, my thoughts are portrayed as images that i have trouble putting into words, wherever it is not being able to or not wanting to.
which is why the conceptualization and illustration of the general idea of elena oganesyan’s work interested me so much, not only for it is fascinating display and appearance; this to me is also why i decided to want to focus on abstraction and idea of hidden identity through the process of photography.
photoshoot plan
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my idea is to take portrait photographs of people in the concept of hidden photography. there might be a singular person in a room with a plain background so that is doesn't take away the attention from the main subject. i want only focus on one main colour along with a black and white effect instead of them having multiple / various overwhelming colours
idea
idea
lighting
lighting
i plan on using artificial light instead of natural light however the room itself will be dim and there will only be a slight amount. i plan on making parts of the photographs darker, for example using the burn tool in photoshop and darkening areas such as the background.
inspirations
inspirations
sketch / plan
sketch / plan
the plan is to follow the inspiration / style of elena oganesyan, experimenting with long exposure and making the images look blurred, and i plan on editing the images to decrease the saturation making the photographs have a discoloured, moody style like oganesyan. i also want to try covering the persons face with something to expand and capture the hidden identity concept. however i might also try and take photographs of other things such as objects and animals in stead of jus focusing on people
camera angle / position
camera angle / position
i think the main challenges of this shoot will be the lighting and camera angles as i'm still not entirely sure of how i want to execute it. another challenge is getting the photographs to look similar to how i vision it too, and not seem too messy or over the top.
main challenges of the shoot
main challenges of the shoot
i want to follow the style of elena oganesyan, with the long exposure technique. i generally really like how the artists photographs look blurred and as if they are over lapped / over layered !
i want to try and experiment with different camera lenses such as fish eye lenses and wide lenses. the camera will focus on the persons face rather than the persons whole body. the camera will be directly facing the person or slightly upwards.
contact sheets + analysis
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for my first photoshoot i started taking my first set of pictures with a plain white background. eventually i decided to experiment with a darker background in order to test if the lighting would be different or the overall photographs would turn of more successful.
for the camera angle and location, the camera was set up on a stand / tripod for the camera to keep a still image so that there isn't an overwhelming amount of movement captured in the photographs. i ended up using normal lenses because the fish eye or wide lenses didn't look as well as i originally thought it would be and overall would match the same idea i had in my vision and did not blend well with the theme of elena oganesyan, which i found actually was not a problem because with normal lenses, it was more like elena oganesyan's work.
for the lighting, it was not exactly as successful as what i planned for it to turn out to be like in my photoshoot plan, however it wasn't terrible and did not completely ruin the photographs. instead of using artificial lighting like i planned to in the photoshoot plan, i used natural lighting.
the images were taken around midday so it was still light outside, however, on the day the photoshoot was taken the weather was cloudy and dull which made the lighting not as successful.
in terms of my general sketch / plan i attempted to follow the inspiration of elena oganesyan , using the method of long exposure. however for my photoshoot i think the shutter speed was too low and ended up capturing too much motion in the images, creating a motion blur effect and made the images too blurry.
even though i planned on covering the persons face in the photoshoot, the blur of the face already looked successful enough and like the work of elena oganesyan, creating a form of hidden identity.
another difference from my photoshoot plan and actual photoshoot was that i ended up only focusing on taking pictures of people rather than objects and animals.
overall i think keeping the photographs simple and not too over the top was a good idea because i did not want to images to seem messy. to improve, i plan to take the photoshoot at a time and day where the weather was a lot better and a lot clearer. i also think that generally i should end up taking a lot more photographs for my whole photoshoot so that i have more variety and create a difference and certain adjustments.
for example, experimenting with different lighting e.g artificial and natural lighting considering for this photoshoot i mainly focused on natural lighting. another difference in adjustments in different locations and backgrounds to have more contrast in my photoshoots.
i also plan on taking more photographs in general and experiment with different backgrounds, locations, people etc. however i still think it turned out similar to the style of elena oganesyan.
developments + analysis
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for my developments i focused on the theme and style of a specific piece of work created by elena oganesyan. i decided to make the photographs be filtered black and white however they have a cold effect which makes the images look as if they’re from an old film or old photograph.
for the adjustments, i increased the brightness due to the lack of lighting and poor natural lighting during the photoshoot. i also slightly increased the contrast of the images, so that the subject, in this case being the person, would stand out significantly more. then i increased the exposure which is also an important part of the photographs as it helped make the light stand out more in the images and also brightened up the background. after this i also adjusted the offset, increasing it. because of this certain darker points of the photographs were increased and stood out, for example shadows and over all the darker areas in the pictures. this created a contrast between the shadows and highlights of the photographs, which added on to the old , film like effect.
within the photoshoot, my more successful areas was getting the style and mood / theme similar to the style of elena that oganesyan. the photograph development that appeared the most sucessful to me and the most ideal in terms of what i wanted to images to turn out like, was my fourth development. i generally like how the filter effected the image, and it appeared slightly more contrasted and brighter than the rest of the images. however i think it came out sucessful because of how the photograph was mirrored, making it similar to the style of elena oganesyan.
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to improve i think adding a grainy texture would make the images appear even more successful and similar to the style of the artist. i think this will add onto the theme / mood of the photographs and photoshoot by following the style of elena oganesyan.-- i think that this was another one of my most successful developments. i think that the way the camera captures the long exposure turned out highly successful and captured the movement in my photograph successfully. as well as in terms of editing, i think that the exposure was set to an ideal amount that made the lighting of my photograph turn of successful. the background was plain which also made the subject stand out more and contrast well. -- i also think experimenting with the filters using photoshop would be a good way to try and improve my developments by making them more complex and original. another way i could improve my work is by taking pictures of various different people, places and generally taking photographs of other different images things besides focusing on one thing which is multiple photographs using portrait photography with a plain background, and instead experiment with different locations.
overall i think that the photoshoot somewhat did fulfill the inspiration of elena oganesyan however it also has a sense of originality and isn’t entirely focused of the exact style of the artist.
highlighting success + analysis
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i think that this was one of my more successful developments of my photoshoot generally for the editing process. using photoshop, i followed the same editing process and technique that i used for all of my other photographs, however for this development i experimented with further developments. after editing, the development seemed under developed and generally not ideal to how i wanted it to turn out, as i thought it was too simple. to take a step further, i copied my edit then pasted in and flipped it upside down so it creates a mirroring effect. i think this development turned out as one of my most successful.
i think that this was another one of my most successful developments. i think that the way the camera captures the long exposure turned out highly successful and captured the movement in my photograph successfully. as well as in terms of editing, i think that the exposure was set to an ideal amount that made the lighting of my photograph turn of successful. the background was plain which also made the subject stand out more and contrast well.
process log
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using photoshop to add on to the motion blur and long exposure which cause the face to turn out blurred, i used the blemish tool selecting it over the persons face. i did this because it created a smudge effect over the persons face, creating a blurred out technique, the long exposure effect already adding on to this.
adding a black and white filter effect onto the photographs to add onto the style of elena oganesyan. then decreasing the offset, increasing the exposure and decreasing the contrast. i also used the burn tool to darken the background
more exposured
less exposured
adding a black and white filter
burn tool
blemish tool + cropping
further developments
redraft developments contact sheet + analysis
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for my second / redraft photoshoot, i experimented with taking photographs of different things, people, places etc. however still attempting to portray the style and technique by elena oganesyan considering in my first photoshoot i only took images of a singular person. however i found it hard to capture the style of the inspired artist as oganesyan only took portrait photographs, images of people instead of places and objects. another thing i found difficult during the photoshoot was the background and keeping the backgrounds plain. i used simple objects and also took pictures of a persons hand which was easier due to being able to display a better and simpler background. i also decided to capture different camera angles and experiment with where the camera was displayed; for example i tried to take certain images from the perspective of a birds - eye - view.
i decided to continue focusing on mainly portrait photographs and taking photographs of people, instead using objects such as paper to cover the persons face or parts of the photograph in general; using inspiration from a specific piece of work by elena oganesyan. as well as paper i also used different objects and even hands to cover the persons face. i also tried to capture the photographs from a wider view, instead of close up images. i
mainly did this so that it was different from my first photoshoot but also to expand on the idea and concept of hidden identity in photography.
for my developments i plan to attempt to make the photographs a lot more different than the first photoshoot, and i want to do this by having more saturation and overall more colour in the images.
for the redraft, the photoshoot was similar to the first elena oganesyan inspired photoshoot. however i decided to experiment with the blur effect and the movement of the camera and subject.
i had a paper / an object covering the persons face similar to the colour of the background to blend in, then due to the long exposure effect and the blur, the face of the person looked blurred and hidden, blending into and with the background, following the concept of hidden identity.
however the photoshoot did not appear how i first ideally planned it to, i think it turned out somewhat successful as the idea of blurring and erasing the face of the person creates the mood and style portraying hidden identity in photography.
the camera set up and display was the same as what was from the last, first photoshoot. i kept this the same because the camera angle and perspective view was ideal and similar to the style of elena oganesyan.
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inspired photoshoot image
framing / burning the images
for my second / redraft photoshoot, i experimented with taking photographs of different things, people, places etc. however still attempting to portray the style and technique by elena oganesyan considering in my first photoshoot i only took images of a singular person. however i found it hard to capture the style of the inspired artist as oganesyan only took portrait photographs, images of people instead of places and objects.
redraft developments
+ analysis
for the redraft / further devleopments, i decided to expand deeper on the concept of hidden identity however still keeping the style and mood inspired by elena oganesyan. using photoshop to add on to the motion blur and long exposure which cause the face to turn out blurred, i used the blemish tool selecting it over the persons face.
i did this because it created a smudge effect over the persons face, creating a blurred out technique, the long exposure effect already adding on to this.
aside from what i planned to in my original photoshoot plan and sketch, i ended up making the photographs really similar to what i did for my first photoshoot, however with a few alterations and differences.
i experiment with the blur effect and blurring and blemishing the persons face with the blemish tool, following the concept of hidden identity.
the camera set up and display was the same as what was from the last, first photoshoot. i kept this the same because the camera angle and perspective view was ideal and similar to the style of elena oganesyan.
after this, i began to focus of the actual editing of the photographs i took. i wanted to recreate the black and white mood / style, so i filtered the photographs with a black and white effect, similar to the specifically inspired piece by elena oganesyan.
i also experimented with the adjustments section in photoshop editing, and i increased the brightness and lowered the contrast. the brightness made the background slightly lighter and the contrast made the shadowed areas and darker areas appear darker and stood out more, adding on to the filter.
i also adjusted the exposure and offset, increasing the exposure to brighten and increase the highlights and lighter areas of the photographs. the offset made the shadows darker to add on to the contrast.
for the final developments and adjustments with the photographs, i added a cold tint / filter in the photo colour filters section in photoshop.
i decided i wanted to keep the concept of mainly taking portrait photographs and taking photographs of people, as i think that not only does it follow the style and inspiration of the artist elena oganesyan but it also follows the idea of identity and self identity.
overall i personally think that the photoshoot itself as well as the devlopments and adjustment edits turned out ideal and successful, as i think they captured the concept of identity and hidden identity in photography really well and and long exposure effect inspired my elena oganesyan added to that, making portray the idea of hidden identity successfully.
redraft ( double exposure ) further developments
+ analysis
for the final redraft further developments for my elena oganesyan inspired photoshoot project, i wanted to keep the same and similar blemish effect on my photographs as i personally think that it was most most successful area of my photoshoot with capturing the concept of hidden identity, however i wanted to, using photoshop, add on a filtered that drastically increases the exposure of my photographs.
just like in my first redraft developments, i wanted to create the black and white mood / style, and i again filtered the photographs with a black and white effect, this way i could keep the style of elena oganesyan and the concept of hidden identity. using the adjustments section in photoshop editing, i replicated what i had edited and filtered onto my first redraft developments.
i increased the brightness and lowered the contrast. i recreated the black and white filter effect similar to what i did for most of my developments as i think that this is a more successful area of my developments because they set the mood and theme successfully.
i decreased the brightness and increased the offset, this way the background was a lot darker, making the subject stand out more in the photographs and creating an ideal contrast.
i also adjusted the exposure and offset, increasing the exposure to brighten and increase the highlights and lighter areas of the photographs.
the increase of exposure was a more successful area of these further development edits as they created the most difference between the redraft developments and the redraft further developments. the offset made the background turn out a lot darker and less stood out which was good to contrast with the subject of the photoshoot which stood out more clearly.
the offset made the shadows darker to add on to the contrast. the final product for my elena oganesyan inspired further redraft developments was not as different as my main developments, as there were barely any changes.
for the final developments and adjustments with the photographs, i added a cold tint / filter in the photo colour filters section in photoshop. i think this photograph turned out to be one of my other successful photographs in comparison to the rest. the photograph turned out to be successful generally because of the editing process. i added on the grainy texture and black and white filter, following the same technique i used for all of my developments. using the blemish tool over my face to smudge in, it looks blended into the background which i think was and element that made the development particularly successful. however as a final result the whole person look blended into the background, and it almost looks like a painting. i think this made the photograph look appealing and over all turn out successful. i then increased the offset and exposure more to create a more drastic different between the two redraft photoshoots / redraft developments.
i think my redraft further developments turned out somewhat successful however there was not much difference between it and the redraft developments, besides the adjustment of the exposure and brightness.
to improve i plan to have a more visible and confident redraft that has more difference between it and the main redraft developments.
highlighting success + analysis
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i think this specific development was one of the more successful areas of my general elena oganesyan inspires photoshoot. one of the main reasons for this is because of the camera capture and the editing. for my over all photoshoot as a whole, the idea was to follow elena oganesyan's technique and method with the use of long exposure, during my photoshoot i think that this was one of the photographs where the camera managed to capture it's movement the most successfully. you can see the movement of the persons head in the photograph and the slight motion blur around the persons head which i think made the photograph more ideal as it captured my movement and energy successfully. in terms of editing. the intentional grainy texture was to follow the general mood and theme of the photoshoot, which the black and white filter effect added on to.
i think this photograph turned out to be one of my other successful photographs in comparison to the rest. the photograph turned out to be successful generally because of the editing process. i added on the grainy texture and black and white filter, following the same technique i used for all of my developments. using the blemish tool over my face to smudge in, it looks blended into the background which i think was and element that made the development particularly successful. however as a final result the whole person look blended into the background, and it almost looks like a painting. i think this made the photograph look appealing and over all turn out successful.