David Hockney introduction

David Hockney created his joiners because he was bored of pictures not expressing a sense of time. He wanted to change the perception of a photograph only being a split second of time and only a memory of that moment. To make his photographs feel less like a picture and more like a story he made a montage (an image made up of smaller photographs to show a period of change) this allowed him to make an image showing the change of expression and emotion of a scene and peoples faces. This meant that he could create a story and had free reign on what it would tell the viewer about. This also meant that he could create different angles to add new effects to the image.

What and where

This photomontage was of the Merced river at Yosemite Valley. It was taken on the bank of the shallow rapids and consists of the river, a large hillside and the beginnings of a large forest on the right. What is different about this image is that it is what would be seen if you held your head still and looked around. I think this is portrayed well in the image as the outer photos seem to be closer than the ones in the centre giving it an almost circular view of the picture from one side to the other.

How

The pictures within the montage were all taken throughout the afternoon to late evening on a bright day. What the picture suggests is that he picked this spot the night before as seen at the bottom of the image as the remains of a campfire are by where he is standing.

Why?

I think that Hockney used this to show the contrast of nature and how peaceful it can be, what highlights this is the ominous clouds in the distance and the seemingly rushing river speeding up contrasting with the peaceful hill and the forest surrounding it. The images also highlight the stillness of nature as only the clouds and river seem to change within the collection of images. I think this is used by Hockney to show the serenity of nature and how you could watch it for years and never change yet watch it for seconds and create a completely different image.

Second photomontage review

What where and why

cross

This is an image of two of David Hockney’s friends doing a crossword with each other. These were taken when he went to visit their house and noticed the change in emotions on their faces as they played. He wanted to capture the time and thought that it takes to do something like a crossword and the frustration of when a lot of thought goes into a task and nothing comes out of the endeavour. He used montage to show change in expressions as it went on and used many images of them talking to each other.

How

David Hockney makes montages by taking many pictures of the same thing over a short or a long period of time. He does this to show a change of emotion and makes it feel like the picture has lasted a long time After he has taken the photos he gets the film processed so the images show. He then takes all of the images and arranges them on a page to show the larger image he wanted to show, he often overlaps images and leave gaps in his photographs to add effect. This allows him to best portray a period of change and often uses this to tell the reader a story.

My Hockney Style Montage

joiner

This is my own take of a Hockney joiner. I made it with the intention of displaying a day at school and give the reader an insight about me. I did this by including: my bag, a piece of work, a camera, a friend and a few camera bags. This was taken when the teacher was speaking and we were getting ready to take some photos when I saw an opportunity to capture a different view to most people on my camera.This is me changing the lighting of the images so they blended better.

I used Photoshop to make my image using layering. This gave the Hockney effect I was going for as I could add borders to each individual image to give it a distinct look and let the viewer see that I had in fact taken many pictures. I also used the blur tool giving me the opportunity to make the viewer think about what is missing in the image and to make them more engaged with the picture by letting them fill in the blanks.This was me layering the drop shadow.