From 1979 to 2012, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, also known as Fischli/Weiss. Their pictures, movies, installations, and sculptures were full of wit and surprise, displaying commonplace materials in bizarre and amusing settings. Fischli was born in Zürich, Switzerland, on June 8th, 1952. He studied at the Academia di Belle Arte in Urbino and Bologna, Italy. Weiss was also born in Zürich, Switzerland, on June 21st 1946 and attended Kunstgewerbeschule which was in Zürich and Basel. In 1978, the two artists met for the first time, establishing a short lived rock band before collaborating on artwork the following year. The artists went on to represent Switzerland at the Venice Biennale multiple times, with their piece Questions winning the Golden Lion medal in 2003. Weiss died on April 27th, 2012 in Zürich, ending their 33 years partnership. The Guggenheim Museum in New York held the first major exhibition of their work in 2016. Fischli is still based in Zürich where he lives and works. The art institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis, and the Hamburger Banhof in berlin all have their work in their collections today.
Something I would like to focus more on is their work with flowers and nature. It appears to be double exposed, so for my own photoshoot I am going to be shifting my attention to nature and capturing a range of different flowers and anything that I feel captures the essence of Peter Fischli and David Weiss's photography. I am eager to begin studying Fischli and Weiss as their art is truly captivating and relates perfectly with past artists that I have worked on. Their work commonly includes a dialogue between opposites; order and chaos and work and leisure, the everyday and the sublime. I am intrigued with this concept behind their photography and will be keeping it in mind when capturing my images. Their use of flowers ties in the work with Pipilotti Rist very nicely and the colours draw in work done with Petra Collins, so I am pleased to bring ideas and styles used for them into these new artists.
PHOTOSHOOT PLAN
CONTACT SHEET
For my photoshoot I captured photos of nature, primarily of flowers and greenery. I attempted to include some of the background as it is an aspect that is visible in Peter Fischli and David Weiss's photography. I was slightly hesitant towards whether the images I wanted to capture would accurately represent the imagery of Fischli and Weiss. To take these images, I purchased a bouquet of flowers. When selecting the flowers, it was important that they varied in colour and style. It is the same qualities seen in Peter Fischli and David Weiss's photography. I ensured that when I took the pictures that it was bright outside because I wanted every feature of the flowers to be evident. The sky is something that is seen in their photography, so it is something I kept in mind. With all this in mind, I am pleased with how these photographs turned out, the colours are vibrant and represent the colour schemes in Peter Fischli and David Weiss's photography very well. The different compositions make way for a diverse set of developments and makes the editing process more
DEVELOPMENTS: EXPLORING DOUBLE EXPOSURE
I a pleased with how my developments turned out, especially due to the colour schemes and the double exposure. The editing software used was Photoshop. I opened up the image and first adjusted the brightness and contrast, this made it easier to decide which steps were best suited for the photograph. I then opened up the next image I had circled in my contact sheet. I used the square Marquee tool to select the whole image and copied and pasted it onto the other. The next step was to reduce the opacity to ensure that the imagery beneath was still visible. To create the same psychedelic effect as Peter Fischli and David Weiss, I utilised the normal tool ad browsed through the various options to experiment with which ones seemed best for each specific developments. Once this was done, I adjusted the lighting a final time as most times, it became too bright.
PROCESS LOG
This is a process log of the different steps and techniques required and used to create my developments. I fist began by opening the first two images I had circled in my contact sheet. I adjusted the contrast and brightness on each image to enhance the qualities of the flower before I developed it further. Using the square marquee tool I selected the whole image and copied and pasted it onto my second image. Once this was done, I decreased the opacity to make the image underneath visible, creating the same style that is seen in Peter Fischli and David Weiss's photography. Although I could leave the mage as it was after decreasing the opacity, I wanted to ensure that it was a really close resemblance of Fischli and Weiss's work. Due to this, I pressed the normal tool and browsed through the different option to experiment with what I believed depicted the artists work. Depending on the image, I would choose different options, this primarily relied on what gelled the best. Once I was satisfied with the appearance of the photograph, I adjusted the curve to ensure that the lighting was touched up on and was to best quality.
HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESS
I chose this particular image to highlight success on as it captured Peter Fischli and David Weiss's photography exactly how I desired. I believe the differentiation between the background and the flower itself is striking yet seamless as they transition. There is an emphasis on the purple colour of the flower that creates a hint of vibrancy throughout the image. It captures the viewers attention due to the accentuation of the flowers colour, the purple is highly emphasised. The image is double exposed with another, creating an overall psychedelic development. The colours in this photograph work very well and create a depth to the image, replicating the aspects of Fischli and Weiss.
EXPERIMENTING WITH COMPOSITIONS
To expand on my work I have set out a series of images that I believe correlate with each other. They all hold similar aspects and elements, it seems as if the images have been projected and are shadowing in the background. The vibrancy and colouring of this set photographs also relate to one another, the colours of the flowers are where the eyes go to first as they are the main components of the images. The style and editing of them respond to one another the most out of the gallery of edits and clearly link the best.
PHOTOSHOOT PLAN: 2
For this photoshoot, I am going to be exploring the style of Peter Fischli and David Weis further and experiment with different techniques. Whether this be with the camera angles, lighting, composition, flowers, and setting. I would like to keep this photoshoot quite light in terms of the execution and the atmosphere of the overall shoot. My previous photoshoots have contained quite harsh colours, so I would like to distance form that and experiment with a different colour palette.
CONTACT SHEET
For my contact sheet, I have captured photographs of flowers, ranging in different colours and styles to recreate photographs in the style of Peter Fischli and David Weiss. I have taken these images form a park, making sure to take photos of various different types of flora. I am pleased that the flowers that were there had multiple different colours, broadening the colour palette of my photoshoot. Due to the nature of the photos, I plan to keep the editing quite simplistic and natural in terms of how it will look, I feel that over-editing the images will take away from the original. I am highly pleased with the outcome of this photoshoot, the images look vintage and hold the same style as Peter Fischli and David Weiss. The colouring of the photographs are also an aspect that I am pleased with, the colours are vibrant all throughout.
REDRAFT DEVELOPMENTS
For my redraft of Peter Fischli and David Weiss, I have captured a new set of flower imagery that I believe is an even more accurate representation of their work and style. I began by opening up two images that I wanted to edit on Photoshop. I adjusted the brightness of the image by decreasing it. This is
primarily due to the fact that when I image blend the two photographs together, the outcome is very saturated and appears over-edited. So bringing down the brightness, along with the contrast, significantly helped the overall quality of the development. I then used the square marquee tool to select one of the images and press Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v to copy and paste it onto the other photo. I then went to the image blending tool and browsed through the different options to see which one matches best with both the image itself and Peter Fischli and David Weiss's photography. Depending on the outcome of the image after the image blending process, I would reduce the opacity to create more transparency with the layered images. I am highly pleased with the outcome of the images as they resemble the similar style seen in Peter Fischli and David Weiss's work. Both images are noticeable which allows the viewer to see the photograph that is almost hidden underneath.
PROCESS LOG
The first step I took was to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. I primarily reduced the brightness and contrast over half way as this would create a softer looking image for me to work on. It becomes less harsh. I did this step for both images as I layered them on top of the other.
Once I had copied and pasted the images onto each other, I would browse through the different image blending options. This step would create a psychedelic effect and create that interesting effect that is seen throughout Peter Fischli and David Weiss's work.
After I had chosen the desired image blending option, I would adjust the opacity. This step was taken whenever I felt that the images were too harshly merged and did not have that seamless blend that I was looking for. I would reduce it not more than a third of the way.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
The aims when editing these photos was to to emphasise the colours that was already there within the photos, and do this in the a similar style to Peter Fischli and David Weiss. I began by adjusting the brightness and contrast of the image. I mainly brought down the contrast because I did not want my images to be sharp, I wanted them to look soft and almost glazed over as Peter Fischli and David Weiss's work. I then copied and pasted the image onto itself and rotated it 180 degrees so the images would be on opposite ends. I then used the image blending tool to merge the two together, creating transparency throughout the photograph. I went onto the colour lookup tool and browsed through the different options to see which filter matched the best, I tried to vary between the cool tones and warm tones. I then pasted an image of an expired film texture to create the blue an pinky hues on the image. I reduced the opacity to ensure that the image was still visible and the flowers were still the most prominent feature. I am pleased with the outcome of the images as I have accentuated a lot of the colours and detailing of the flora.
PROCESS LOG
The process to create these photos first began by copying and pasting the image onto itself and rotating it 180 degrees so I could merge the images later on.
I used the image blending tool to merge the two photographs together and create the same subtle distortion seen throughout Peter Fischli and David Weiss' work. I then reduced the opacity to create some transparency between the two images.
I then went to the colour lookup tool and browsed throughout he different options to see which one worked best. I experimented with different options throughout my developments to create a variety of tones.
