NIGEL TOMM'S CRUMPLETOGRAPHY
I came across the work of Nigel Tomm by chance, whilst looking for unusual visual photography techniques, however, I was instantly inspired by his work and hoped that I could use this technique in my own work on the environment. The environment which Tomm uses as inspiration is that of fame, celebrity and peoples perceptions of the fashion industry. The photography of Nigel Tomm is truly captivating and his crumpled photographic images distorts the look of celebrities and beautiful models and brings them down to a more realistic level of beauty. I liked this technique as he was also providing a strong underlying message within his work, however, by using a modern surreal approach.
When considering Tomm's underlying messages within his work, the above photo really stood out as a perfect image to express this. The subject model used is obviously very beautiful, however, Tomm's technique of crumpling the photograph, destroys this initial image of beauty and replaces it with a completely different uglier visual version of the same shot. I enjoyed the way that by using the same photograph, Tomm was able to produce two entirely different versions, only by folding and crumpling the paper. I thought that this technique could be used within my theme and I could hopefully achieve some startling contrasting photos, again by only using one shot.
The above second image created by Nigel Tomm is slightly different in the fact that he has used a more classical subject on which to display his technique. This time Tomm uses a colourful classical painting, however, again, by crumpling the image, he creates a completely different surreal statement.
I really enjoyed this photograph and could see an idea of what I could possibly achieve if I adopted this technique. The tree to the left of the frame was my inspiration as it becomes distorted and although it is still clearly a tree silhouette, it takes on a more sinister shape when the paper is screwed up. I will experiment with natural landscape images myself and also photographs of waste products to explore this technique further.
The above final photograph has been produced by Ridha Ridha who is a Contemporary Mixed Media Artist from Bonn in Germany. Ridha Ridha has adopted the same technique as Nigel Tomm of Crumpletography to create a strong visual final image. In this instance, Ridha Ridha mixes painting with photography and then creates a final digital copy of his work by photographing his piece. I think some of his images are startling and highly memorable. The image above takes a very familiar portrait shot of John Lennon, but by experimenting with both colour and technique his final piece is more visually bold. I liked the way that a very familiar image has been manipulated and this has given me inspiration to take familiar images of possible pollutants or litter and transform them into something different through a photography technique.
My own photographs
The first image was taken as I began to explore litter which we often see crumpled and discarded in the environment. Inspired by Ridha Ridha, I found a very familiar object and tried to portray it crumpled within it’s setting. I liked the way that the bold colours of the crisp packet were so obvious, especially when lying in the green grass. The folds of the packet were highlighted by my flash and I liked the way the plastic texture was in contrast to the natural backdrop. I decided to further heighten the colours of the packet in Photoshop and I reduced the saturation in the grass to show this off more. I liked this contrast and found that the shadows formed by the blades of grass gave my shot lots of interest.
The above second image was a further exploration of crumpled litter. This time, I removed all colour from the litter, however, keeping the surrounding vegetation in full colour. I liked the way that experimenting with colour really enhanced my images. The litter being in monochrome worked well as it illustrated that it was a foreign object within the natural environment. The polluting factor of the packet became a focus in the shot and gave a strong environmental message which continued the theme of Tomm’s work which also had strong underlying messages. I realised that photography can be a powerful tool to illustrate a very relevant topic and problem. I thought that this idea of strong imagery could be used within my final piece to ensure my photographs were visually noticed.
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