FANTASTIC & STRANGE
Mari Mahr
ARTIST ANALYSES
Mari Mahr is a popular Chilean photographer known for her collage’s and B&W retro photos. She has taken a majority of her photos in the 60’th decade and was one of the photographers that was asked to test digital photography. Many of her photos are taken on a B&W film camera meaning most of her photos are grainy and show less detail (have a lower resolution). An example of her work is ’13 clues to a fictitious crime’.
Mari Mahr’s photos are specifically B&W and have a grainy texture due to the film camera she uses. This is very similar to Karl Blossfeldt who also use a film camera in B&W and has a grainy texture in most of his photos. Her images have an abstract theme due to her mix of nostalgic and creative images, which she shows in her dream-like story telling photography. Her images include multiple different angles, which adds realism to her photos as if the viewer is in the moment (such as : bird’s eye view ; landscape ; on the ground). Moreover, she uses layering in her photos through multiple different objects, which is further improved by her use of harsh highlights, shadows, exposure, brightness and contrast, separating the background and foreground. Further more, she adds realism and tells a story, through the use of detailed props, including document files (labelled), blood on furniture and shattered glass and lights. Mari Mahr also captures realistic photos through her use of physical manipulation in her photos, by framing her photos to bring the subject to focus.
A part of Mari Mahr’s photography that I find interesting is her use of story telling and how she is able to create a realistic scene to the viewer few the techniques she uses in her photos. What Mahr has done in her photos is used the fact that the images flatten the view from 3d to 2d, meaning the viewer´s sense of proportion is gone. This helps her images such as showing a large chair and a small marble appear the same size. If I were to ask the photographer a question I would want to know how she is able to capture pictures that correspond so well together. Mari Mahr’s photography style is able to capture a story and show perspective in a creative way that captures a realistic view to the viewer that I would be inspired by during the photoshoot.
PHOTOSHOOT CONCEPT
For the photoshoot I plan to create pictures that are inspired by Mari Mahr. To achieve this style of photography I will use crime and horror inspired props for my images. Additionally, I will use filters and adjustments in photoshop to improve the images and make them appear with the same grainy, B&W appearance, Mari Mahr's images has. For the photoshoot I will incorporate daylight into it rather than lowlight, which is similar to some Mari Mahr photos. Another important aspect will be capturing different angles of photos. A challenge of the photoshoot will be how many different ideas I can achieve. For the photoshoot, I plan to have small and large objects colliding but due to the multiple different angles they will appear the same size. furthermore, I will try to use layering and plants in my photoshoot and incorporate lighting to improve the quality of the photos.
After the photoshoot, I would reflect on how many photos I took. On reflection I was able to achieve the correct lighting, background, objects and ideas. If I were to improve a part of the photoshoot I would have used more objects to mimic Mari Mahr's style of photos.
CONTACT SHEET
For the contact sheet I considered the elements that were successful and what weren't. I found that the lighting is some pictures was under-exposed or was to bright (contrasting the background so that there is no shadow. Another failure of the images was the lack of objects and props making it less exciting. Some of the success's of the photos was the colours and amount of vibrance. Additionally, the blur was able to focus on the correct subjects in the photos and I was able to capture the photos with successful highlights, exposures and aperture's. This was important so that the lighting was clearly separated and was able to be contrasted harshly when edited.
To capture the photos I used B&W filters over the lense as it is similar to the appearance of Mari Mahr's film camera's. Additionally I chose to expose less in the photos as otherwise the photo would lose details and the colour of blood would be bland and have no appearance when made B&W. In the images I also used dried colour as it would bring extra contrast to the shades in the B&W photos. For the images including pages I used a high aperture as this would let in more light which would blur out the details and and add a different shade to the photos.
For the re-draft I would aim to use more interesting props and get more diverse photos. Further more, I would focus more on the exposure of the photos and how bright it is through a normal lense. In the re-draft photos I would use artificial lighting as this would help the exposure areas of the images as the area of shadow and highlights could be adjusted by moving the light. A final aim I would focus on for the re-draft photos would be taking a larger amount of photos to experiment with different angle sand aperture's.
Developments
I used adobe photoshop and sony-vsco to edit the photos. In the photos I tried to use the similar effect of noise and high contrast as this is similar to the appearance of film camera's. Additionally, I used colour correction on photoshop to help show the different exposure levels of the photos. In the photos I used the colour mixer to create a redish-colour over the colour corrections, to create the effect of blood and used burn and scratch overlays as double exposure, which is also similar to the effects of Mari Mahr's photos. In the raw photos many of the pictures were very grey or under exposed, which meant I used high exposure and high contrast with low levels of light to balance out the lighting. Another technique I used over the photos was double exposure to add scratches, dust or burn overlays which meant the contrasts of B&W were more clear.
Highlighting Success
This development was very successful as I was able to capture a well exposed image that included a contrast of highlights and shadows, meaning I could adjust the contrast highly to create the similar filter that is in Mari Mahr's photos. Moreover, I included the technique of double exposure to the photo by using dust and scratch overlays over the photo and cutting the paper to look more chaotic in the similar style of Mari Mahr. In addition, I blurred out the paper to cover the lost details of the photos and increased the contrast to remove detail and help the theme of the photo.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
For this set of photos I used my first set of photos and overlayered/double-exposed them together to create similar double-exposure pictures, inspired by Mari Mahr. I found these developments were very successful as they had a combination of both images. I found using my developments from my Karl Blossfeldt photoshoot was also successful as those images also had a similar theme to Mari Mahr's and those developments ended up both fitting the theme of fantastic and strange.
REDRAFT DEVELOPMENTS
For the re-draft photos I used Sony-vsco to edit the photos. In the photos I tried to use the same theme as the first developments and execute the failures of the first developments successfully. A aspect I changed was the colour correction and I also added vignette to the images as it is more accurate to Mari Mahr’s style. I used less double exposure in this set of photos but used more filters and adjustments. For example I used higher contrast and highlights and shadow changes due to the raw images being better exposed and having artificial lighting which could control the area of shadow and highlights. Another success of the re-draft photo shoot was that I used more exciting props, which meant I was able to achieve having more developments. If I were to change an aspect of the images I would have focused more on the ratio of the photos and the angle as most photos have similar (birds eye view) angles. Furthermore, I would’ve used more noise rather than grain to achieve high quality and have the similar style of Mari Mahr’s photos. Overall the re-draft photos successfully captured the failed aspects of the first developments.
Mirror Developments
I edited these images with Adobe Photoshop. I mirrored them using the duplicate tool and lightening and darkening the images. I also changed where they were and changed the rotation. For the first one I duplicated it multiple times (4). For the fourth edit I used the darkening tool as I knew that this would only affect the appearance of the object on the first layer.
Further Developments
Raw Images :
I took images for my further developments of this photoshoot after printing all my re-draft developments out. I then took images of them layed out with different objects over them such as the hand and the statue. I used the images as layering over the hand by putting the paper over the hand after it was soaked in water so that it would fold around the hand. I was happy with the outcome of the background as I used auto-ISO, which meant I couldn't adjust it and only had sunlight as the source of light. However, the light in the images was successful and none of the images were under-exposed or over exposed. Overall I was happy with the outcome of the images as the raw images were not far from how the final developments would appear. When editing the images I will use VSCO where I can adjust them to be B&W and then add a cooling effect , which is similar to the adjusting of the images for my re-draft.
Developments
THIRD PHOTOSHOOT
Layering Images
Concept
IDEA : To make the images B&W and then add objects over the images after they are printed. Then capture those images.
B&W IMAGES
For these photos I used Adobe Photoshop and edited all the images B&W. As this was going to be printed out I added slight contrast to each image so that it would be more clear when printed. I also adjusted some colour under the B&W layer to make tones clear. These images will be printed out and then layered under objects to be recaptured and edited for the third developments.
Contact sheet
I took these images for my third photoshoot for Mari Mahr. I took these images with printed images from my re-draft photoshoot and used objects that were new and some I had already use in my second/re-draft photoshoot. I took these images with a creative control setting which meant I could not adjust the ISO. However I changed the amount of light in some images and in images with no light source due to shadow I used a lamp from the side of the camera's angle. I layered some objects in the same place as where they were in the original photo to create a three dimensional setting, which I found more successful in some images than others. An aspect I was happy with was the amount of lighting in images and the low amount of contrast. This means there is little amounts of editing to do, which will also fit to the theme of Mari Mahr as she does not use a digital camera where she can edit her images. One aspect that was less successful was the background, where I should have edited the printed out images with slight more contrast so that they were more clear and appeared less like paper in images with lots of light. I chose to add new objects such as fake guns and forks, spoons and knives as this was the theme of Mari Mahr's crime/mystery photography I wanted to experiment with in this photoshoot.
Developments
For these photos I edited them on Adobe Photoshop. I did not change many of the aspects in the photo's for the final outcome of the developments. The first change I made to every development was adding a lower contrast and either increasing or decreasing the brightness depending on if there was low or high amounts of light in the photo's. I added less contrast to very dark or black coloured images to appear in the style of a older camera. in some images I experimented with adding noise and sharpening some edges slightly. For mages that had no focus and no background blur in the raw image I added a slight iris blur or linear blur around the subject to appear as if it is standing out. I did not add much as that would be out of her usual type of photography. What I found successful about the images outcome was how similar they looked and that they appeared better when presented together than my re-draft images for my second photoshoot. I chose to not add any filters or add any colour as I could experiment with that in further developing and most images appeared successful in B&W. Further more, the B&W in the images fir the background images I printed out as then there was a constant theme of B&W across this photoshoot. I found these developments fit well with the first images I analysed from Mari Mahr's work ad I wanted to add filters as experimentation instead of final product. For these images I was happy with the outcome and the only aspect I would change was the capturing of the photo's. I could have taken images with different object over the objects in background images however I found this was also a good choice as it helped create a sense of 3-dimensional appearance in the images similar to what she does in her work. Another aspect which was both good and bad was the background as although the lightness and lack of contrast in the developments made them appear more as a background in images, it also meant they were unclear in very bright images meaning the low ISO I used to then became either slightly under or over exposed. Overall there were not to many changes from the edited images and the raw images.
Further Developments :
Double-exposure
I double exposed my previous developments for these double exposure developments. I edited them with Photoshop. I lightened the images that I layered over the background images and for most developments I added a filter by using the photoshop preset filters or adding a photo filter which was smokey, warm or cold between 25% and 50% so that it still contained some of it´s original lack of colour. I was happy with the outcome of these images and I think these were successful developments as most were not ruined or lost the original components that made the original developments successful. Aspects such as the brightness and the exposure did not need to be changed in these edits as there was little editing needed even for the first developments. I reduced the opacity and fade in some images that appeared to under-contrasted as it meant the under layer/ background layer was less visible and appeared under-contrasted.
HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESS
I chose this image for my highlighting success as it had multiple aspects I liked about it and how it was edited further. For example, the light/subtle filter of blue and then the 'smokey' filter above that layer helped add contrast to the image and show both images in this double exposure. I also liked the difference in the images as one has a higher amount of small objects that are scattered above the second image which has a small amount of large objects. I also like that there are many different aspects to the image that are only seen after looking at the image for a longer time (the paper with multiple images in the left corner, the flower under the hand, the newspaper background in the top right corner). I was very happy with this image as a final development to show the difference between my first and last developments.