Colour Photograms!

Today was all about creating colour photograms with object which we find interesting in regards to the structure, outline and look of.  It was a great exercise to see how you can play around with the colour to produce beautiful and creative images. 

The only thing I dislike about photograms is that once you have your objects set up and you've exposed your image to however many seconds - to then take the image to put through the machine, you;ve lost the layout of your objects and have to do that all over again. This is quite difficult in the colour darkroom as you cannot see anything and have to imagine where your placing the objects, unlike in the black and white darkroom it is a lot easier as you can see exactly what you are doing and how your image will look. 

This Teal coloured photogram is my favourite of the 3 I produced!

In link to Idea of Youth

Photographer - Glen Erler


1)  Age 13-18

Words from the artist;

''This project, even though it is still ongoing, is the merging of several previous chapters and the result of several years work on this subject. I wasn't quite sure what exactly it was going to be in the beginning and chose to let it find its own feet. However, I didn't set out to make autobiographical images relating to my past and chose to cast females in most cases thus far. I found that many things changed for me starting at this age. My parents decided to split up which lead to a change of schools. Physical changes, psychological changes and a craving for independence all seem to stay with us and shape us into who we are as adults. How we dealt with the issues at hand, who we were surrounded by and how we were lead all contribute to us as individuals. I feel these images are not only portraits of this age group and their surroundings but also an exploration of the emotional solitude we all seemed to have felt at this age.''

2) A way back

Words from the artist;

When I was back in Valley Center recently taking these photographs, it dawned on me that the truth holds firm with life repeating itself. When I was ten or so, a friend and I would wonder around his family's property looking for a place to camp out that night, or on a hot day, search for shade. That friend still lives on that property and ended up married to my cousin. My other cousin, her brother, lives just a few miles away. These images are of their children and a friend of which they've grown up with.

I spent the same period of my life wondering around this same area where life seems a bit slower but that doesn't stop the desire for change. When you're living it and know nothing else, you spend your days dreaming of ways to get out. I made it out some time ago and now spend my days dreaming of ways to get back.

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Why does Erler feel like this? Was his time there a 'waste' and not fulfilled to the maximum - so that he does not need to feel like he needs to go back. I feel as if this links to youth and how some of us may feel we didn't live our time in our youth as we wanted to and therefore it all seems like a waste. If only we could go back in time and live our life then to best way possible. 

Waste of my youth/time in London/abroad

If I was able to take my commission images in london, I would follow in the steps of Israeli photographer Amit Sha'al. - I would take printed photos of my childhood and go back to the places to see how at that moment I could of done things to change my future - I know this is a different concept to Sha'al's but I feel like I have wasted 'time' that has passed.  - 

Images of my youth 

My time in Pakistan - Going back there now after about 13 years- There would definitely be change.

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Amit Sha'al speaks about the project:

"I took black and white photos from 1926 to 1979, and went across Israel to locate the exact spots where they were taken. I held the photos in front of me and shot a wider photo, when the colored 2010 reality continues where the black and white photo ends. In some places, it seems nothing has changed, but in others, the buildings have changed their purpose and the black and white people are 'planted' strangely in today's reality. The photos portray three different times: the old black and white photos, the present colored photos and the time that have passed between capturing both photos. The third time mentioned is not a visual one, but a mental and emotional dimension, filled in by the knowledge we have of what dramatic changes have happened between the two times."

sometimes its the small things such as being on holiday and not really taking in where you are -  taking in account all the history and also the fact that I didn't capture those moments. I've been abroad to Florida, New York, Paris, Chicago, Sans Francisco, Rome, Madrid, Denia, Valencia, Barcelona, Marrakech, Istanbul, Grenada and Servile. - In the future I would love to go back to these places and follow the steps of Sha'al's. 

Florida - Age 8

Paris - Age 12

NYC - Age 13

Chicago - Age 14

Rome Age-15

Spain - Age 15

Turkey - Age 16