Task #4

The digital age is starting to take over and black and white film is seemingly going out of style. It's all about colours in so many different ways whether they're faded or overwhelmingly vibrant. People are starting to forget about the crisp, contrasting shades of gray, white and black that film creates and even black and white digital creates that same effect, sometimes more so than film. But digital will never compare to film but that's just my opinion (as well as some other fellow art students such as myself).
Black and white photography is a beautiful form of art and often times overcomes the power of colours because of it's ability to create such stark contrasts. Colour can become a bit oppressive unless it's serving the image a deeper purpose, as in colour either adds to the image or it takes away from it. Black and white is easier to read and fall into while colour can sometimes be overwhelming and bring your eye all over the image, becoming annoyed. That's what colour does for me sometimes, it annoys me and I just want to the simple quietness of black and white.
For the images above, I went for a creepy Alfred Hitchcock horror vibe, playing with lights and complete darkness. I wanted viewers to see this image and think of a movie or film still that dates back to the times of black and white films, without the colour factor like in Wizard of Oz, the beginning of coloured movies. I'd honestly rather work in black and white, but I suppose I wouldn't say that if I were blind to all things colour and could only see in black and white. If roles were reversed I suppose I would rather see colour over black and white all the time. It's a tough call really, colour works sometimes when black and white doesn't. Black and white works when colour is too overwhelming and in your face.
When it comes down to it, I suppose that colour and black and white tend to balance each other out, to a certain extent. They both work in so many ways and really it's up to the person using colour or black and white to express a certain moment or concept of which the person is trying to express. It's rather confusing to me, this whole black and white versus colour ordeal.

Task #3

I was really excited to do this project because instantly my head was filled with so many ideas and I was so inspired by the trippy-ness from 'Enter the Void' and decided to try numerous things. I ended up choosing this image of a guy in his kitchen, whipping his hair around and adding the tri-colour effect. I took three images of Rob standing in different spots in his kitchen and then layering the images together in photoshop using the red, blue and green channels to add the crazy colours. I then messed around with the saturation and colour balance to take this image a step further and make it more extreme. The purple cupboards and the saturation of that purple create such a bizarre effect, almost like the cupboards themselves are growing some sort of abstract molding. I think this image I've created is rather surreal and I definitely have the potential to take it further and explore more. Maybe even take it outdoors during the day and night and see what kind of things I can create. Stepping away from people might help as well to create a more surreal affect projecting from the mind. Tricolour is really interesting to me and has recently been playing a big part in my work. I think that this image is a better direction for me in regards to just simple tricolour portraits. The colours represent more of a tri-colour effect and creates a better understanding of what tricolour looks like when the movements are subtle.