John Heartfield

John Heartfield

Heartfield's bold life and works played a great part in the jesting of Nazi Germany, their laws, ideals, views and cultures, his works, always at the peril of his own life portrayed Hitler somewhat as a 'clown', satirising Hitler, often portraying him as not just the Nazi leader, fighting for what he believes in and his morals, but also as a heartless, greedy, power hungry person, just trying to feed his sadistic needs. Heartfield sparked the uprising of a bold new form of conceptual art, setting a new boundary in which art can be more than just to look at and enjoy, but also to revolt, to torment and to protest, Heartfield's images, represent a thousand words, telling a hundred tales, depicting made up events, compiled from numerous images, without the aid of photoshop and supremely surpassing that of any other propaganda artists. Heartfield's keen eye to create an image with 'set images' (without being able to physically manipulate or alter state or position, other than cutting out)  overlaid and altering to fit in with a separate, irrelevant image to create a masterful piece of propaganda, to humiliate the opposing and boosting morale of allies.

 

This image can be interpreted in many ways, like the bindings of nazi society to all things, the fact that nazi Germany was fast invading Europe and was not planning at stopping their, starting a new race of people and changing the history books, turning people against whatever was the whim of Hitler, like religions involving a Jewish christ.

This image can also be interpreted in the form of a Nazi desire of reshaping religion, where as Christ is nailed to a swastika, receiving (in nazi views) a deserved punishment, that the same as any other jew would receive and the worshipping of a jewish christ as a sin 

Or as a contradiction to the religious beliefs of christian Nazis in the form that they are going against everything they believe in, blinded by the views of a hatred fuelled usurper.

Joseph Cascio

Joseph Cascio

This image by Cascio almost becomes an optical illusion, the perfect blending from the womans hair to the wavy lines toys will toy with any mind.  Such vibrance in a black and white image and so simplistically presented, Cascio's imagination mixed with stunning darkroom techniques, strongly portrays the persona of the model, the crazed hair, excited face, in a waving whirlpool, so intricate and delicate. Cascio's  darkroom talents are beyond recognition, seamlessly perfect blending from the hair to the waves, without any idea of the digital age to come.

Man Ray - Le Violon d'Ingres 1919

Le Violon d'Ingres 1919

This image; so ahead of its time, Man Ray uses advanced darkroom techniques, portraying so simplistically yet beautifully the beauty of both a woman and the double bass her physique has been modelled on. This style accentuates the shapes of the women, portraying her as such a beautifully crafted instrument and portraying an instrument as a beautifully crafted woman. This image helped begin a revolution in the surrealism movement, combining it seamlessly with techniques, never before thought to be used.

My Idea - Project Proposal

For my final images representing distortion, i have focused on the manipulation of aged images, transforming the desired meaning of the image into something, so distant from the original, flipping concepts of a simplistic portrait or innocent 'snap' into something of a deeper 'satyrical' or mythological portrayal. My intentions are too portray contrasts between similarities yet holding such great differences,  (i.e. old image, manipulated, incorporating historical references or themes of an old nature while the contrast being the desired effect of the image, turning the innocence into something so much more sinister) in order to do this, i will be (and have been) collecting resources and stock photographs to be used within these images, from statues, artworks, bought or from museums and galleries. I will then choose my desired images from personal collections of old photographs and digitise them by using a scanner, for further manipulations thereafter. In acquiring stock images, i will achieve a vast array of subject material in order to 'push and pull' an image achieving many different effects through trial and error, with the ability to sample an image even with a vague idea of the desired effect  i will still be able to achieve greater potential by having such a vast array of resources.

Heartfield - Hitler Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk

John Heartfield

Hitler swallows gold and spouts junk

There is no confusion in what Heartfield is trying to say in this image:

Heartfield's visual language is quite clearly stating his opinions of Hitler and the Nazi movement, this image comprise of images taken by his employed photographer and images he acquired from propaganda material and newspapers. From the collection of these images, Heartfield then deliberates over many ideas and combinations to assemble an image. Thereafter, Heartfield then carefully cuts the images apart, seamlessly incorporating them into a single, surreal image. This technique is commonly used even to today as a process called photomontage. This process can be either performed by hand or on photoshop. This eerie, seamlessly perfect, completely manufactured image is completely spellbindingly impressive, the thought that over 60 years ago, when photography and image development was still so experimental and the only resources heartfelt had at his disposal were newspapers, propaganda and whatever images his photographer could muster up.

The image suggests many ideas and concepts of Heartfield's opinions and choosing:

Hitler is gutless, heartless;

The lack of organs within Hitler will suggest this.

Harsh overall contrasts of the image;

Suggests the harshness of the situation, of Hitler himself, as a reflection of his vileness.

Soft facial features, soft lines - Uncrisp;

This reflects on the naivety and stupidity of Hitler as a person, the fact that his face is so simplified, with open mouthed and squinting eyes, he does not look like that of an intelligent person.

Even in the image title; Hitler swallows gold and spouts junk the purpose of the image is very clear;

Swallows Gold;

The amount of German money that comes through Hitler to fund his demanding, expanding empire and to satisfy his selfish needs.

Spouts junk;

The lies, deceit and bias opinions the Hitler spreads across the world, plaguing the minds and lives of everyone.

Photoshop Ethics

For many years, images have been manipulated, altering the portrayal and viewers conceptions of the image. Image manipulation can be practised for many reasons, whether to portray an unreal event, to depict a story or to enhance beauty. The ethics of photo manipulation will vary, due to the purpose and effect of the manipulation i.e. editing an image obviously, to depict a scenic, not otherwise accomplishable;

 

Like this image, it would be otherwise un-accomplishable if it wasn't for image manipulation software, due to the contrasts, shades, tones, colours and more importantly the bodiless head. In this circumstance, the use of photo manipulation is widely accepted, due to the obviousness in which it is portrayed, it has not been made to fool the viewer or to manipulate or evoke negative emotions in the viewer unlike that of the use of editing beauty;

It is largely controversial, manipulating the natural beauty of a person, discreetly, without intention of allowing the viewer to realise this i.e. removing skin defects, reshaping the body; slimming, adjusting curves and any other prominent features, even down to hair colour, eye shadow and clothes. This is very controversial in numerous ways:-

1) The 'debatably' low amount of photographic talent needed; when lighting, exposure imperfections and other defects of the photographers skill, allowing the photographer to solely rely on their photoshopping abilities as opposed to the natural photographic skills of the photographer, allowing more and more people, lesser in knowledge and talent get to the same stature as photographers with education and perseverance behind them.

2) Manufacturing insecurities within people, due to the 'perfect beauty' portrayed in models, 'raising the standards in which people think they should look like i.e. creating insecurities within people, thinking they aren't attractive enough, like being overweight (or assuming so, purely on the basis that the commercial world of beauty is thin or curvaceous, or that the standards in which commercial beauty is a standard for that in real life) envying disorders like anorexia, bulimia and any other disorders, lowering the self esteem of a person, striving for a standard of perceived beauty that is completely urn obtainable due to the fact that it is manufactured.

Below are 2 examples of the same image basis;

The left image is the original, note the saturation in colour, the blandness of tones, the amateur lighting and the imperfections in the skin.

The post produced version of this image is vastly different, colour casts have been adjusted, enhancing the oranges, reducing saturation, heightening contrast, darkening hair colour, smoothing out the skin, adding a stronger tan and reducing evidence of tights being worn. These factors contribute to the argument, the sloth or inexperiences of the photographer i.e. careless lighting, relying on post production processes to correct laziness or lack of skill, removing the tights, deciding or not bothering to do so while composing the original shot. It is is also arguably down to these factors that insecurities and a heightened conception of perfection in the human form is made apparent in the mind of the viewer i.e. the 'idealisms' of how the human body is supposed to be, making the viewer believe that they are not equal, raising the standards of the viewer and the opposite sexs opinion of what is normal and what is naturally to be expected. Due to the fact that the subject is photoshopped, this idea of beauty is false and unobtainable, making the viewer ever uncomfortable and insecure, struggling to achieve full satisfaction in their natural form.

Image Filetypes

File formats and their properties:

Raw filetypes:

Raw files contain the bare essential data, minimally processed, straight from the cameras sensor. They are named raw images due to the fact that they are completely virgin and are as yet unready for print, they are the highest quality the image will be at any point, in its truest state, most vibrant colours, clarity and details, effectively, the image in its purest form. Normally the image would be processed from raw via 'in camera' software into Tiff format or Jpeg format, meaning that they are processed ready for printing, storage or manipulation upon transferring to a computer.

Due to image size, meaning that the raw filetypes taken a longer time to preview, usually 2 copies of the image are produced, for every time an image is captured, in order for a quick view of the image taken. The image labelled '.NEF' is the Nikon camera raw format filetype,

due to so many variations in cameras, processors and camera sensors, all Raw filetypes are different, 

(Some other examples of raw filetypes in different cameras include:

          .cr2 - Canon

          .mef - Mamiya

          .mos - Leaf

          .mrw - Minolta

          .orf - Olympus

Within these filetypes for different manufacturers, there are still)

this means that due to how rapid technology evolves, changes and adapts, raw file types are ever changing and updating, compatible software is always updating, meaning that not always will Raw image files be accepted, so for storage, manipulation and printing other filetypes should be used (like tiff or jpeg).

This is a screen shot portraying the image adjustments of raw images in photoshop, this is a different screen to usual as it gives you the ability to largely change the variables in an image while maintaining a very high standard in image quality and clarity.

Tiff:

Are the filetypes are used for the need of maintaining a high quality in an image,a Tiff format is used exclusively for its traits as a lossless format, or for the ability to compress and change the image size a down side to these file types are that they are very large files and primarily used for printing and displaying work.

Here is an example of the variations in image format, file sizes between Tiff and a lesser quality image format:-Jpeg

The left image is  Tiff format and is 38.8 mob, while the right image is a jpeg and is 5 mob, this means the image on the left has the capabilities of being closely inspected on a large scale and maintaining image quality, while the right hand image quality will deteriorate a lot easier on a smaller scale.

Jpeg:

Is the most widely accepted, default image format. This is the default format that is used by all digital cameras, image recording equipment and image processing software. Jpeg format will decrease the image size, but intelligently, only discarding colours and tones that are not noticeable to the eye, this means that any unneeded information is lost, maintaing the bare essential information, this is a good format for the use of storage and amateur uses of images, but is inferior to tiff in the way that information is lost, restricting image quality. Many image editing softwares actually let the user personally adjust compression or to not allow compression on the image.

BMP:

Is a filetype formulated by Microsoft, this format does not decrease quality in an image but is not a widely recognised as Jpeg and Tiff formats, making this format pointless to use.

Gif: 

A file type used purely for the basis of internet, email and minimal storage, this filetype greatly decreases the image quality, removing  most of the details and colours.

PNG:

This image format, is similar to a tiff image, although it compresses image size by removing patterns within the image that aren't needed. Although this is the idea of the format, these changes can be reversed.

PSD(Photoshop file format)/PSP(Paint shop pro file format) etc.:

These are the filetypes in which image editing software uses (prefers) during manipulation of an image. When saving in these file types, the file size will be a lot bigger than the equivalent tiff or jpeg image as no compressions have been made, this includes retaining all layers and history of image while being used in the program. Although these filetypes cannot easily be used for printing, storage, etc. they should always be used (when available) as a temporary file type while image is not yet completed, in order to retain all the vital information an to serve as a reminder that the image is yet to be completed. Once manipulation of the image is finalised, the images should be saved as tiff or jpeg files as (like raw format) software is always updating and these filetypes may not always be recognised.