FANTASTIC & STRANGE
GJON MILI
ARTIST ANALYSES
Gjon Mill is an Albanian photographer from the 20th century. He is well known for his low key images that use long exposure to show the movement of action and lights. For these photos he uses multiple different lights in his photos and has used different photographers, athletes and dancers in his photo's for the motion. He has used a film camera in B&W for his photos and uses fairy light like lights to long expose. Mili started to work for Life magazine. He soon began working as a freelance photographer for the magazine from 1939 until he died in 1984. Mili produced thousands of images capturing dance, sports and theater events, as well as portraits of musicians, athletes, dancers, actors and artists. He died in 1984 on February 14th.
Gjon Mili changed the perception of photography and movement in the 1930's and inspired many artist who followed in his style of photography. He aimed to create something creative that would relate or show a story through a photo. His photography could be compared to video's as they are capable of showing a short story or moment. Gjon Mili was capable of showing something beyond current photography at the time, which was considered strange.
My first impression of his photography was that it could be compared to modern live photo's as it shows a constant movement in a photo. I found his images of light interesting and captivating as his long exposure was created long before many modern long exposure photographs however still appear creative or original.
Gjon Mill has used double exposure with artist's such as Picasso and has created long shot photos, with his drawing in long exposure. He uses multiple different angles and adds the same theme of distortion and abstract that is in Picasso's portrait drawings. My first reaction to his work is that it is able to capture the correct emotion of who he is photographing, such as the feeling of art when Picasso is presented, or the feeling of sports when a basketballer is shown. It reminds me of many portraiture drawings in the design, however the dark monochrome theme is similar Tatiana Parcero. His work shows the motion of people, which makes you feel as if you are in the image. he is able to show that through the multiple angles that are not typically used in photography. Moreover, the image makes you feel as if you are watching a solo performance due to dark them that only shows the one person, making it seem lonely. The photo´s he take are very well captured technically and include the correct use of exposure, ISO and angle for the light and the correct use of highlights ,mid-tones and shadows on the person. An aspect of his photos he uses with his camera id that the film camera captures B&W at very different levels contrasting them and he uses this to contrast the brightness of the light with the low exposed background. Another effect he creates using the exposure is the use of focus as the film camera adds a light layer of blur over the background to bring the focus to the light. He uses the angles of the photograph to create a theme of 3d drawings in the air. He is also able to capture the space correctly, which doesn´t overfill or underfill the image. His use of space and 3 dimensional angels adds a story or process to the picture that shows how it was drawn rather than the drawing of light. If I were to name or describe the photograph, I would describe it as `individual, natural, lonely´ as there is a sense of solidity to the subject of his photographs. Gjon Mili is able able to capture the use of light very effectively and his use of angle and exposure go very well with his double exposure, making his images very successful in my opinion. In addition, his photography is a combination of art and photography, which through the motion is able to tell a story or show a process.
"My generation came at a time when photography was advancing by leaps and bounds, creating the impulse to experiment and seek new approaches."
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" Time could truly be made to stand still. Texture could be retained despite sudden violent movement. "
TECHNICALITY
The technicality of his photos also uses very important preparation as he has used a very dark atmosphere to capture many of his photo's as he would not have been able to retouch or burn his images. Gjon Mili has inspired many artist, and one aspect which has changed is how some photographers have started to use colour. This was something he could not do with a film camera, however it is a aspect which adds to the theme of his images. Further more, nowadays we see long exposure used across moving vehicle´s and this change´s how we see the photo as now all aspects of the image are blurred out un like his work where only the light is moving.
Gjon Mili likes experimenting with many different types of long exposure such as the difference between his work with Pablo Picaso and Hedda sterne. Overall,I found his work with Henry Moore the most similar to what I want to achieve.
His work with Henry Moore uses similar technique´s to his work with Picaso, however he uses more abstract shapes and ideas with Henry Moore making his light drawings appear less realistic or showing a less formed shape. Additionally, his work with Henry Moore used some tones of green and purple, blue and yellow and green and yellow to replace the original B&W. I am excited to use these techniques for my own light drawings in his style of long exposure drawing images.
PHOTOSHOOT PLAN
Contact Sheet & Developments
Contact Sheet
For the photoshoot I aimed to capture well exposed light drawing images that captured the same theme as Gjon Mili. I used fairy lights in the images and aimed to capture the images in low light as this would add contrast to the appearance of the fairy lights. I also experimented with using higher and lower vibrancies. When I took the photo's I used many different ideas of drawing out the human shape and adding different shapes as if it were a drawing. For the photos I tried to capture I high contrast so that I could also add a B&W filter over them to reflect Gjon Mill´s style of photography. Additionally, I tested different poses and angles to create a more 3d effect in the photos. Some of the success´s of the photoshoot was that I was able to capture a low exposure and only include the light in the photo´s. Moreover the background was blurred out. However, some images were captured with too much harsh light or unclear drawing and shapes. I would also use a B&W photos over the camera as then there would be a further contrast before the image was edited.
For the re-draft I would use lower exposure´s and use lower lit areas for the photoshoot. Further more, I would use less harsh light on the lense so that it is able to capture more light while long exposing.
DEVELOPMENTS
For these images I aimed to double expose them in a similar style of Gjon Mili. Some developments were very successful in his style and I duplicated and mirrored images to have a more centered image. For the images I used the burn tool to get a fully black background and used higher highlights on the image so that it would not affect the light. I aimed to explore light with colour and adding hue over the images. This was also something I would use in further developments such as making a GIF. Additionally, I used different mirroring to add more shapes to the images and used the cropping and mirroring tools to duplicate images and to change the original shape. An aspect, inspired by Gjon Mili was the drawings of the human body, which was inspired by his photos with Pablo Picasso, however I chose to use heavy contrast and lower the light curves to not show any background to make the light drawings appear more two-dimensional. Another aspect I changed in the last photos was changing the hue of the light as I had originally used a white light, which was helpful in order to change the colour.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
For this photo I changed the hue using photoshop and used multiple settings to make the gif. For this I took one of the most successful developments and one that had a fully darkened background. For the GIF I changed the hue by 10 on the colour scale to slowly flow between colours and copied the images to return to the starting state.
REDRAFT
CONTACT SHEET
For my re-draft photoshoot I focused less on creating realistic shapes and added abstract shapes experimenting with how close I was to the light. For some photo´s I held my camera straight above the light and for others I held it further away. I used long exposure from 4 seconds to 15 seconds and I used completely white lights so that I could change the hue of the images in Adobe photoshop when editing.
I found that most of my images were captured better in this photoshoot as I aimed for a more specific style of photo rather than my first photoshoot. A success of this photoshoot was that I Was able to keep the background pitch black and keep the ISO low meaning most sources were not lit up by the fairy-lights. Additionally, all the photos were kept in focus and no images were made grainy or included noise. I I were to change my photoshoot I would have aimed to capture more photo´s to be sure of having enough photo´s for my developments. I would have also liked to use a B&W filter lense over some photos to show similar images to the style of Gjon Mili, as he worked on a film camera making all his images B&W.
DEVELOPMENTS
For the re-draft developments I aimed to capture more colour in my images either by capturing more colourful lights or changing the hue. I used Photoshop to edit the images and I found that my re-draft images were significantly more successful. I used the burn tool and mirrored shaped to create the double hue's and I used the rubber tool to combine both colours. I found increasing the contrast was more successful than decreasing the curve levels. For the developments I increased the hue's as I used a completely white light for the developments meaning the saturation was lowered even when changing the hue's. A success of the photos is that they fill out the images and show a good contrast of colours and the drawing is not disturbed. Moreover the light isn't blurred by motion and the black background adds a 2 dimensional similar to the idea of Gjon Mili's work being called 'light drawings'. Something that I enjoyed that I would like to use and develop in my independent project is close up as using close up show less motion blur on the images and I found my close up images were most successful. I would aim to use more controlled shapes or use fireworks in my independent project as they are more natural.
FURTHER DEVELOPING
Process log
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I started by making the image B&W and then editing the images to have an adjustment so that they appeared with a lot of contrast. I also added a second layer where I added additional contrast and increased the brightness so that the brightness would not affect the first layer of contrast.
2. I then used selective colour and went to white and added the least amount of black tone I could. I chose the crop tool to then crop the edit.
3. I then used the burn tool and burned areas that were to bright. I then flattened the layer and used a gradient colour (which was only BLACK and WHITE) and adjusted the edges of the photo to be slightly darker/blacker.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
B&W
COLOUR & CROP
I am happy with the outcome of these developments. I took the original images that I had taken and I change those images to fit with the theme of my aim for my independent project. I found that these were rather successful developments overall and did not just look similar to my original re-draft. For the images I had taken the B&W tool to make each image appear B&W. Due to some tones appearing bright and some appearing under or over-exposed I chose to use the selector-tool to adjust some tones separetaly. For the colour images I cropped the images differently. I also changed the colours and double exposed the images to adjust sperate colour and add different tones and hue's. I found these images very successful and I can continue to develop them by using double exposure or making the images B&W and then layering and adjusting the crop.
HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESS
I liked this image as it had a nice hue and the crop of two images together went very well in creating this image that is not exactly symmetrical, however shows a theme of it being symmetrical through mirroring the photo and turning it 180 degrees to the left of the image. The image was not changed much other than the hue where most green areas at the top edges where were cropped down to and were selected using the selective colour tool, to make the whole image appear magenta. Overall, the aspects made this image a very simple edit, however the outcome was one I was happy with to show the full development throughout this page for Gjon Mili.