JOHN STEZAKER
John Stezaker’s work re-examines the various relationships to the photographic image: as documentation of truth, purveyor of memory, and symbol of modern culture. In his collages, Stezaker appropriates images found in books, magazines, and postcards and uses them as ‘readymades’
LANDSCAPE OVER PORTRAIT
I love John's work because it is very unique. It is clearly in the category of images within images as multiple pieces of media are combined to create Stezaker's abstract pictures, but by doing this, he also displays two different categories of photography while doing so - portrait images and landscape images. Portrait is shown by the very uniform, singled out, professional images used as the main image in his final pieces and Landscape is shown by the overlays on top, making the overall image very abstract and one-of-a-kind. By using this method, his photography talent in multiple categories to pull together to create his own unique pieces.
MY RECREATIONS
To show John Stezaker's work in mine here, I have layered an image of a landscape over another image - a portrait shot of my cousin. I have looked into some of Stezaker's images in the lanscape section where he has kept it completely back and white, which I have displayed here. Although both images used have no saturation, they have very different colours and tones - as you can see the portrait is very dark with more grey and black tones while the landscape has a lot of bright white tones laced through it, such as in the water and the sky. I think this creates slight contrast between the two images I used for this piece although they are very similar, which brings more detail to the final image and makes it more interesting to look at and more unique, just as displayed in John Stezaker's landscape work. For the positioning of the portrait shot, I can see that he has taken the images from just below the shoulders upwards, so I have taken that technique and used it for this portrait shot that I used. In some of John's work, the landscape shot covers only a section of the model's face but in others, it covers the whole face. I have used the whole face technique here but only sized the landscape image so it stops just where the ears start, so the portrait image that you see frames the landscape image layered on top, and it doesn't seem out of place or randomly inserted, it is clearly deliberately placed here. Both pictures used were taken by me and I edited this to bring down the saturation in Photoshop CC.
Again, for this picture and all of the pictures I created to interpret John Stezaker's style, I have used a portrait image for the background and a landscape image layered on the foreground. For this piece, I have looked deepy into some of John's images he has produced and noticed that on some, he has positioned the landscape image so it follows and blends in with the a part of the portrait image, for example, John used a portrait of a woman facing to the side and positioned the landscape so it was like the rocky edge of a mountain was the silloette of her face. To use Stezaker's style in my image, I have taken a landscape image I have taken and positioned it so the mountain follows the shape of my head/hair that we see in the portrait image of myself. For the colour in this image, unlike the previous piece I analysed I have kept the landscape image coloured but the portrait image desaturated. John does this in quite a few of his images in this collection, so I did the same and this creates contrast between the two layers and makes the picture of the mountains stand out and draw your eye to it. After observing my photo, I decided to crop out the part of my arm that was showing. This is because I am abnormaly pale so my skin was so white and bright that it was causing a distraction from the main image.
This is probably my favourite image from this section. It is a face-on portrait image of my brother, where the light is coming from the left and creates an extreme shadow on the right of his face which I think gives a more ameture, home-taken and abstract feel that is displayed in a lot of John's work. I think the lighting in the image also creates a diversity in tone and makes the picture more 3D instead of being one-toned and very flat. I have also altered the depth of field on my camera for this shot so the background is very blurred compared to my brother who is very sharp and in focus - and I did this so he would be brought forward and made obvious he is the main feature of the shot. For the landsape image I have incorperated, I decided not to use a typical one shot camera image. Instead, I have used a panorama shot that I took while in Malta as it has the perfect colours to contrast from the desaturated portrait and it is the right size, as it is long lengthways and perfect to place over the eyes. If I used a normal camera image, I would have to rezise it, meaning the image would be distorted. I have placed it over only the eyes as as I said, the panorama is the perfect size, but also because a lot of the portrait is stil shown so a lot of personality is kept in the final image. I have also not cropped the panorama so it rests only in the diameters of my brother's head, I have kept it so it goes over the edges so it gives more of a modern, abstract feel to the image. Both images used were taken by me.
For this photo, I have used another portrait image, this time of my auntie (that I actually really like on its own, anyway) and once again, desaturated it so it turned black and white, exactly the same as John Stezaker's work. Over the top, I have overlayed another landscape image. But, for this one, I have bumped up the saturation in the image so the blues and the greens stand out a lot more and so it creates even more contrast against the black and white portrait images. Also, I noticed that on quite a lot of John's work, he has put a border around the landscape image overlayed on top, so this is what I have inserted into this final piece, around the landscape image I took. I think making the overlayed landscape picture's saturation higher to make the colours incredibly bright incorperated John's style into my work even more as in a lot of his final images, you can tell he has done the same thing to make the colours of the natural world more bright and vivid so they really stand out and the different styles of photography are really accentuated. Similarly to the last image I showed, I have altered the depth of field on my camera so the background is extremely blurred and the point of focus, my auntie, is very sharp, clear and in focus so your eye is drawn to it and it is obvious that she is on the foreground and the item to be observed.
PORTRAIT IMAGES WITHIN IMAGES
John also has another section of work where he combines two portait images together to create one abstract portait image. He makes sure that the photos fit together, including positioning, expression and angle, so they work together in harmony.
MY RECREATIONS
For this final image, I have combined two photos taken of me (cutout on top) and my friend Shannon as the base picture. I have cut out a section of the image of me, I chose to include most of my face just like John does in his, but I did not include too much as I wanted to match up my features to Shannon's, which I did. I think this makes the final image work together in harmony and even though it is clearly abstract (as there are images within images), it flows nicely and makes sense as a photograph. I also chose different backgrounds to use for the two shots included in this collage, as you can see for Shannon I used a white studio background and for me I chose a blue material background. Multi-types of backgrounds can be seen in Stezaker's work so I incorperated this into mine as it creates more diversity and accentuated the fact that two images have been combined and it is not just one. Using different backgrounds and original colours also mean that different tones and shadows are created which again brings more diversity to the final image. I also turned the final imge black and white as this is what John does in all of his in this project. I think this again brings more diversity and difference between the two shots used as it makes the shadows and highlights more visible between them both.
On this final image, I have used the same technique as the last one I showed, where I have combined to portrait pictures to create one, this time using my friends Jake (the base picture) and Jack (the overlayed picture). I really like this final image as a lot of both boys' features match up perfectly, such as their eyebrows, nose, mouth, hair and shoulder. I think this really makes the final image flow together and look realistic although abstract. I looked at the expressions on John's shots and took one of his styles, where I had Jake looking one way and Jack looking the other so their eyes created something abstract and quite humourous. This time, I have changed both shots into black and white, but Jake is completely unsaturated and I have made Jack to have a slight Sepia effect. You can see this shown in most of John's final images, as it creates a lot of tone and accentuates that there are two different images combined, therefore making it more abstract.
I really like this photo collage because it as it is abstract with two portait images joined together, it shows the element of binary opposites that draws you in and makes the audience think and compare the two. This is because the two portraits I used (of my friend Melissa and my dad) are completely different, in personality shown in expression to the close they wear and their facial features such as eyebrows and facial hair. It makes the audience compare and take into consideration quite political subjects such as gender norms. I used the same technique as all of my photos in this section of the project and used Photoshop to combine these two portait images. I also used the same tip as the last photo I displayed, where I desaturated both images but tinted one of them slightly sepia to increase the contrast between the two images and to draw in the abstract factor. I also like the fact that although these two portrait shots are incredibly different, I have positioned them both in a way that the main body and facial features match up, such as the chin, nose, mouth and eyebrows. I also really like the fact that their shirts are perfectly divided in two as it makes the overall shot, although abstract, slightly realistic.
For this photo, I again used the image of my dad as I really liked it and thought it would work well with the portrait image I took of my mum, shown here. I especially like this image as the models are not completely straight, their bodies and heads are tilted which makes it look a bit more unique and interesting, because as they are tilted means there is a tilted cut between the two images which makes it more abstract rather than straight and uniform. I also like this one, because the same as the last one, both background are plain and white. Although John sometimes uses mixed media for his background and makes the two he uses very different from one another, he also uses two very formal, professional images with both plain backgrounds, as you can see in my examples. I think this makes the final photo a lot more professional and sophisticated, such as his. I also did the same effect with making one portrait more sepia than the other, it colours the backgrounds as well as the people differently which seperates them, and makes them more different which accentuates the abstract element. I also like how my mum and my dad's eyes are looking in different direction as this very much brings in the abstract element again.