Find inspiration within your images... if they don't inspire you then take more pictures that DO.
Be sure to turn in a contact with any new images.
Jerry Uelsmann Assignment
Our assignment is to use images from your first shooting assignment and to create a
photographic collage using nothing except images from the actual contact sheets. You
will not be allowed to download or use any images from the Internet or another
person’s creation. The work will be based on Jerry Uelsmann style of composition with additional inspiration from Surrealist artists.
Your final composition will demonstrate that you learned and mastered several important
PhotoShop skills in this project including: layers, filters, transparency,
scaling, rotating, distorting, feathering, and proper file preparation.
The first step is to analyze your contact sheet and look at all the items you have to
work with. Many items are not meant to be used as a whole image, just as individual
parts. Also look for an image to be used as a background. Many of you have some
beautiful sunsets or other landscapes to use for this. I recommend some kind of
land/sky or sky/water image that might look good “mirrored”.
Work out some sketches for some compositions. Remember that Uelsmann often
used backgrounds and settings as the base environment in which several symbolic,
often mysterious images, were place into the environment. Sometimes they are
merely placed next to each other, sometimes blended together, often times floating
(and creating realistic shadows). Use the rule of thirds, or other designed planning
system. DO NOT JUST RANDOMLY PLACE OBJECTS ON THE CANVAS! You
should limit the number of large objects in your composition. Many objects could
become small accessories or strange additions to the image. Remember to use
unnatural size differences to create a sense of the surreal to the image.
I have gotten you started with the file preparation and canvas creation.
Remember to constantly be aware of the symbolic or metaphor potential in all subject
matter. Little in art is put into an image without it meaning something or to enhance
the design of the piece (balance, unity, dominance, etc.).
