Last time, I spoke about Japanese photography painters. These terms are surprisingly new to me considering I’ve read many photography magazine but none of them mentioned these innovating styles. Like George Melies, these pioneering “color photographers” are the ones who proved photographs can be colorful as well.

War photographer Felice Beato was one of the first photographers who introduced journalist photography. He shot and reserved hundreds of rare war photographs from the east where and when the Qings still reluctantly ruling China, including the Opium war between British and Munching China. Later before he settled in Burma, he opened a photography studio in Japan, teaching Japanese citizen to learn photography. And among these disciples, there are Kusakabe Kimbei and T. Enami.

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Felice Beato captured a variety of Japan during the Meiji period. He was permitted to shoot many of the unforeseen Samurai Culture, reserving the image of the real Samurais and Japanese soldier, and introducing this little country beside China to the Westerners. Therefore, the viewers felt like tourists, observing Japan as a foreigner, just like Beato.

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Kusakabe Kimbei’s worked in a different style compared to Beato. As a local photographer, he mainly explored the world of Japan’s female, including the geishas. Kimbei used plenty of color to create a lively atmosphere of geishas’ dancing yet with the same techniques, he depicted various woman in their unique characteristics, such as a mother was painted green as a soothing character, a young woman with pink pigments to embrace her youth.

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T. Enami or Nobukuni Enami, also captured the life of Japanese, but as a local. Through the lens of Enami, viewers are able to see the daily life of Meiji’s Japan as Enami shows not only the famous samurais and geishas but common citizens as well, giving us a glance of the working society.

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As you can see, the three photograph painters used almost the same blue in their photographs, yet they depicted different environment and meaning in their photographs’ characters. Such as the serenity around Mt. Fuji, the symbol of honor in a samurai towards his master, the commonness in working labors, and even the intelligence of a writing woman.

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Even depicting almost the same theme, you can see the different expressions through the use of color. Their motto was not recreate realistic colorization but sending subtle messages to people who view the photographs. Thus they didn’t colorize the skins and unnecessary items. A little color altering can go a long way.

Inspired by their work, I combine the motives I had from the previous and attempted to colorized my photos in different possible ways. In the meantime, after some research I finally found a color wheel that simply summarized how we have been using color to express different emotions and environments.

emotional-and-psychological-meaning-of-colourWith the help of Photoshop, I am able to create a few colorization style by selecting different layering of my pure colors. These methods included layering a portion of B&W photos with semi-transparent color. (Sneak peak!)

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This is just a test photo.

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Or tinting them entirely with the hue to create a film style from the 60s. Movies in the 60s tends to tint their whole scene into certain color to express atmospheric tension, before color correcter was invented.

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By color correcting the photo’s, we can still see the original colors, but the tint can be seen as well. This is what movies nowadays usually do, but in a more subtle way.

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The color scheme used in film has to be created using real props with similar colors and software editing. Since I can’t do that much during the production, I figured why not express my concept in an eye-catching way by covering the details in the same color. This way, viewers can see the colors far ways and able to capture the details when they’re near to it.

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Also, I tried to recreate the effects of the mentioned photograph painters. This effects only show color of the key element in the photo, providing each of their own meaning in the image.

Lastly, the pictures below are my journal’s snapshot showing my thought process. Don’t worry if you can’t recognized my handwriting. I’ll type them in my next post when the final results are uploaded as well.

20151115_195943 20151115_195953 20151115_195957Adaptable + Stubborn = ME, a lucky sonofagun that miraculously met great friends and survived.

20151115_200006 20151115_200010 20151115_200016Thoughtful (In any aspect) – Procrastination = BETTER ME, an anti-comfort person, at least willing to be defy comfort.

20151115_200153 20151115_200035 20151115_200039Creative x Experienced = IDEAL ME, standing out in an extraordinary way, with what I am, what I do, and what I left.

20151115_200054Skilled – Stubborn = ME IN 5 YEARS. Freed from my limitation, with infinite possibilities awaits.

[To be continued…….]

First and foremost, I would like to admit I do not possess the knowledge and experience to appreciate abstract art. I agree most of the paintings are visually stunning, and I do feel the impacts conveyed from the components on the canvas, such as its shapes, lines, compositions and colours, instead of its hidden emotions. At least, it made me realise its own beauty and brilliance, which is what art is supposed to be able to do.

Among the artists that have been shown in the last session, I found interest in the following artworks, or furthermore, impressed. These artworks are Cai Guo Qiang’s gunpowder drawings, Andy Warhol’s Oxidations, and Yves Klein Anthropometries.

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Let’s start from Cai’s drawings. Gunpowder is known as one of the four great inventions of China which symbolised wars and chaos throughout the histories of any parts of the world. Yet Cai used it as his painting material. However, Cai managed to create fine arts without just burning up his canvas but using different types of (mostly traditionally made) gunpowder to produce various textures and colours. Some of the patterns created were peaceful, still and sometimes dynamic, which create a conflict with their material. Gunpowder finally has a new function besides destruction in the hands of Cai Guo Qiang.
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Next, we have Andy Warhol, the pop artist who won’t stop redefining the popular art culture of his time. When I first saw Warhol’s oxidation painting, I thought the series were his attempts to move on to other types of painting. After reading the fact that these oxidised stains on the metallic paint were created by his and his friends’ urine, I was shocked. A lot of thoughts ran through my mind at the moment. Was he trying to imitate the motion of liquid but he couldn’t thus the method was thought? Were there buyers who wanted to buy the series solely because they have urine on it or they have Andy Warhol’s urine on it? One thing for sure is that he did managed to create a unique pattern that can’t be done by merely paint brushes. It may not impressed me for its artistry, but it certainly made itself unforgettable.

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Similarly, Yves Klein created art in his own non-traditional way. By directing models to paint with their body, he created a unique series of art that acted as performing art as well, the Anthropometries, with the blue he used so much that people named the blue after him.

Through the artworks mentioned above, I realised that the methods to express have absolutely no limitations in art. Not only the outcome on the canvas can be an art, but the process of making it as well. These act of creativity inspired me to think out of the box and be willing to express my ideas and emotions, regardless the methods of painting. However, one thing for sure, urination is not on the list.