Gemma Schiebe
Artist gallery
Artist analysis
Gemme Schiebe is an artist and photographer who was born and is now based in the South of Wales. She Is primarily a painter and works mostly using oil paint and does dozens of collages as a method of making art. She likes to use the environment and the land around her as inspiration due to the fact that she is heavily interested in everything nature and urban land. Her current art form is about exploring the earth around her and also likes to experiment with association to environmental harm to raise awareness about such issues. She has received many awards such as the First Class Fine Art Degree from Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University.
I will be focusing closely on Schiebe's photography rather than her art, more specifically, her experiments with tracing paper and urban settings, as well as removing people from her photos using photoshop. A wide variety of her photos are taken on dull rainy days which is interesting because on these particular days people use umbrellas and hoods to cover their faces which links to my focus on identity for this project. By taking these photos of people concealing their faces, it is almost symbolic of them trying to hide their identities from the world around them and I believe that that is what Schiebe is trying to do. I love how she takes her photographs on wet days as the rain on the floor tends to reflect the things above it which creates a photo with much more depth and different types of textures which causes them to be more interesting.
To link my work to hers, I will attempt to use tracing paper and scissors and experiment with cutting many shapes and patterns to make my photos unique but also similar to hers. I will try to incorporate identity into my project by using something similar to the hoods and umbrellas but instead may experiment with using things like balaclavas or masks so its inspired by Schiebe but I will not be fully copying her.
To explore her work in more depth, I can also see that she takes photos with quite a sad, morbid vibe and I think that that vibe is what makes her photographs so interesting. She experiments with people and how they act in a depressing world and picks out people and focuses on them. It is a very interesting outlook on life and I will attempt to mirror this aspect and carefully think when I photograph to ensure that my photos and her photos have the same idea.
Photoshoot plan
Photoshoot plan annotation
For my photoshoot plan, I will be attempting to mimic Schiebe's work the best that I can. I will do this by following this plan to do so which is to go and find an urban populated area and take photos of people and single one person out to edit. I will attempt to find somebody who is wearing a hood/hat to try and match the concept of identity in my photoshoot. My camera will be on a low exposure setting so I am able to easily capture the movement of people without it being blurry. I will ensure that the sky is moderately cloudy/dull.
Contact sheet
Contact sheet annotation
This is my first photoshoot and I am not completely happy with it. Although I did achieve some results which I am happy with and will proceed to move forward with, I believe it is not entirely successful because I did not achieve all of my goals.Some mistakes which I made in this are:the sky is too white, I did not take enough photos as well as there are not enough people in the photos that I did take. I also think that the photos appear much too grey and some do not look particularly professional. I circled the photos which I believe I can look at to make progress on in my next photoshoot, as I managed to capture some of my goals in them such as: people wearing hoods, masks being worn, as well as there being enough people to make the photo successful. I do not feel that I explored enough about what Schiebe is actually trying to accomplish with her photographs and that is my aim for my next photoshoot.
Reshoot
Reshoot annotation
I am very happy with how my reshoot turned out. I think I have achieved the variety that I aimed to achieve in the first place when I combine my most successful photos from both shoots into one contact sheet to create the best possible starting point for my developments. Overall I think that they taking the right photographs was a challenge but I got my preferred results in the end
Final contact sheet
First developments
First developments annotations
For my third developments I decided to try to capture Schiebes work in terms of saturation and layer masks. By doing this, I put each photo onto photoshop and then duplicated the layer, then added a layer mask, then lowered the saturation to black and white, then removed the black and white from one person/ object in my photo. The purpose for this was to try make one identity stand out from the ground, it was an attempt to display how everyone is different and unique from everyone else and I think my photographs captured that idea quite well. I aimed to choose people who were wearing quite bold colourful outfits and when I could not find one in my photo, I then resorted to choosing people with a bold appearance-e.g short children that stand out from the crowd. To improve, I think that some photos could have been taking closer or in better quality but overall I think that it turned out good. I am excited to develop these!
Highlighting success
Highlighting success annotation
I have chosen these developments as my highlighting successes because I feel that they are the photos that stand out the most to me. I think that this is because the people which I have taken the saturation off are all wearing red. The contrast between the bold red and harsh black are very noticeable and make these photos better that the other ones. As well as this, I love the photo with the small child next to a tall man because the height difference makes the photo very raw and different from the others. In my next developments I will attempt to focus more on red as I think that it is the colour most suitable for making my photos look how I want them to.
Second developments
Second developments annotation
For my second developments, I attempted to mimic Schiebe's exact photography style. By doing this, I used the quick selection tool to cut out one unique person from each photo, then I proceeded to add a layer mask and then another layer. I then lowered the opacity on the layer mask to create the interesting ghostly look of the people in the photographs above. I also played around with the filters and on some photos I added a lighter filter to make them appear more eerie. I decided to leave some of the people from my first developments to some variety and make some photos different from each other. To improve, I could have been more careful and made sure that I cut out all the people precisely but overall I think that it turned out great.
Highlighting success
Highlighting success annotations
I have decided to choose these two photos as my highlighting successes because I love the way that the people pop out of the crowd and the variety of shades in which they are coloured in. I like the first picture because I feel that the man looks very wise and the fact that he is highlighted shows him as an individual rather than him being in the crowd with everything else. Contrasting to that picture, I really like how the small child looks in the photograph, clutching his teddy tightly, representing childhood and the fact that he is highlighted quite heavily represents how he has not experienced much of the world yet whereas the old man is almost worn out and finished life. These photos represent identity in the best way which I could think of as well as looking very similar to Schiebe's work which was my aim.
Experimenting with double exposure
Double exposure annotations
For my double exposure, what I did was take a different or the same photo and layer it over 4 of my developments. I then messed around with different types of filters and created these photographs. I like them because I feel as though they have an eerie ghostlike feel to them which makes them look quite cool. The first photograph is quite interesting in my opinion because I placed two photos taken in the same place but one has an old man, and the other has a little boy. I feel as if this represents growing up in a very unique way and growing up is a crucial part of identity.
Third developments
Third developments annotation
For my third developments, I took the final edited results from my second developments and then printed them out. I then proceeded to cut out the image of the person which I had been focusing on editing previously and ensured that I cut the image out precisely so that it looked smooth. Then I placed the physical piece of paper on a light box and began to photograph. I really love how these turned out as the light box had quite and interesting effect on how the texture of the paper looks, causing it to appear grainy and old, making the photo look like something that was taken on an old disposable camera. This causes the photographs to look more mysterious and ghostly which was my original aim for this photoshoot.
Highlighting success
Highlighting success annotation
I decided to choose these three images as my highlighting successes because I feel that they represent the most of what I was trying to do with this photoshoot. I believe that this is because the person which Is cut out in each of these edits is in some sort of crowd and I think that this is what makes these 3 more interesting than the others. The picture of one person standing out in a crowd links a lot to individuality in my opinion as it emphasises how one person can be completely different from all the rest. I think that I portrayed this in a very creative way and I absolutely love how these turned out. If I could improve, I would make sure that there is no reflection on the paper when photographing it because I have noticed a small yellow light on the bottom of all of my images, however it is not very noticeable and definitely does not diminish the overall effect of these photographs.
Further developments
Video development
To do this, what I did was print my images out onto tracing paper and then hold one down and move the other behind it to create the illusion that there was a video playing. I then added some music to convey how I see this sort of work as and to make the whole thing more dramatic.
Tracing paper further developments
I did these by layering two pieces of tracing paper with my images printed onto them and creating a sort of window which the other picture can shine through creating a ghostly effect which I think looks very interesting
AO4 experiments
AO4 annotations
I used templates to display my Gemma Schiebe AO4 work and I love how they turned out. I think all the images put together in a sort of collage makes them look very interesting and I like how the borders look. I also adjusted them at different angles so that there is more variation