Experimental Photography

The first handbook to systematically detail experimental photographic techniques that manipulate conventional camera technology to create stunning images

Thanks to the popularity of digital photography and user-generated Internet content, interest in experimental photographic techniques continues to build. This unique guide helps photographers go beyond the snapshot, flex their creative muscles, and push the boundaries of their art. Rick Doble presents a wealth of imaginative concepts, from creating ambience through a mix of flash and available light to panning the camera and zooming the lens during an exposure. He explains how to manipulate time and motion in an image, use inventive white balance methods, and "paint" with light in time exposures. There are even original self-portrait techniques. Put these procedures in practice and you'll make photography a riveting, even surreal, art form!---from the publisher.

More photos are taken than ever before, but most are neglected and unused. This book suggests new creative directions and explains how you can produce distinctive and exciting works of art. Packed with technical advice and in-depth practical detail, it shows you how to use cameras and equipment for experimental photography. There are ideas on how to develop a creative eye and a personal photographic style. It explains when to use the rules of composition, and when to break them and shows you how to create amazing pictures from everyday objects. It provides inspiration, ideas and techniques for making abstract and pattern pictures, and using textures for artistic impact. Finally, it advises on using software to convert pictures to artwork and how to present art images for maximum effect. Through step-by-step guides and stunning examples, it also helps you create images that tell a personal story. It's an essential guide to help you take photos that count, not just click away.

The Experimental Photography Workbook, now in its 6th edition, is completely revised, updated, and professionally published, with full-color images from 100 photographers illustrating all processes. Inside you will find succinct how-to's on the photogram, cliche-verre, lumenprint, chemigram, photo-chemigram (chromo/painting with light), collage, photomontage, photo transfer, pinhole, zoneplate, Holga, paper negative, Sabattier, lith printing, liquid emulsion, modern tintype, mordancage, dye mordanting, bleachout, toning, applied color, abrasion tone, bromoil, encaustic, distressing film, and more. The Workbook is the perfect "short & sweet" manual to put play back into the analog black & white darkroom, and will be a great impetus to increased creativity for students and professionals alike.

This is the first publication on the American modernist photographer Curtis Moffat (1887-1949), who is known for his dynamic abstract photographs, innovative color still lifes and some of the most glamorous society portraits of the early 20th century. He was also a pivotal figure in modernist interior design and furniture. Living in London throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, in the era of the Bright Young Things, Moffat produced stylish photographic portraits of leading figures in high society, theatre and the arts, including Cecil Beaton, the Sitwells, Nancy Cunard, Lady Diana Cooper, Tallulah Bankhead and Daphne du Maurier. In 2003 and 2007, Moffat's daughter, Penelope Smail, generously donated her father's extensive archive to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This book is drawn from that archive and includes, in addition, digital reconstructions of color images from original tri-carbro process black-and-white negatives. It reveals Moffat's pioneering but hitherto little-known photography in all its depth and beauty.

This book explores a range of experimental self-portraits made in France between 1840 and 1870, including remarkable images by Hippolyte Bayard, Nadar, Duchenne de Boulogne, and Countess de Castiglione. Adapting photography for different social purposes, each of these pioneers showcased their own body as a living artifact and iconic attraction. Jillian Lerner considers performative portraits that exhibit uncanny transformations of identity and embodiment. She highlights the tactical importance of photographic demonstrations, promotions, conversations, and the mongrel forms of montage, painted photographs, and captioned specimens. The author shows how photographic practices are mobilized in diverse cultural contexts and enmeshed with the histories of art, science, publicity, urban spectacle, and private life in nineteenth-century France. Tracing calculated and creative approaches to a new medium, this research also contributes to an archaeology of the present. It furnishes a prehistory of the "selfie" and offers historical perspectives on the forces that reshape human perception and social experience. This interdisciplinary study will appeal to readers interested in the history of photography, art, visual culture, and media studies.

"Photomontage was the innovation of John Heartfield and Georg Grosz, engineer-artists who in 1916 brought photographic images together according to new aesthetic rules. This collection shows the wide range of its application to revolutionary art and propaganda, advertising and graphic design, as photomontage was adopted as a primary means of visual expression by the leading avant-garde movements of the inter-war years". -Back cover.

Cyanotype: The Blueprint in Contemporary Practice is a two part book on the much admired blue print process. Part One is a comprehensive how-to on the cyanotype process for both beginner and advanced practitioners, with lots of photographs and clear, step-by-step directions and formulas. Part Two highlights contemporary artists who are using cyanotype, making work that ranges from the photographic to the abstract, from the traditional to the conceptual, with tips on their personal cyanotype methods alongside their work. These artists illustrate cyanotype’s widespread use in contemporary photography today, probably the most of any alternative process. Book features include: A brief discussion of the practice of the process with some key historical points How to set up the cyanotype ÒdimroomÓ The most extensive discussion of suitable papers to date, with data from 100+ papers Step-by-step digital negative methods for monochrome and duotone negatives Chapters on classic, new, and other cyanotype formulas Toning to create colors from yellow to brown to violet Printing cyanotype over palladium, for those who want to temper cyanotype’s blue nature Printing cyanotype on alternate surfaces such as fabric, glass, and wood More creative practice ideas for cyanotype such as handcoloring and gold leafing Troubleshooting cyanotype, photographically illustrated Finishing, framing, and storing cyanotype Contemporary artists’ advice, techniques, and works Cyanotype is backed with research from 120 books, journals, and magazine articles from 1843 to the present day. It is richly illustrated with 400 photographs from close to 80 artists from 14 countries. It is a guide for the practitioner, from novice to expert, providing inspiration and proof of cyanotype’s original and increasing place in historical and contemporary photography.

Go beyond the photographic conventions, break the rules, and create compelling portraits. While the ability to create a conventional, traditional portrait is a must-have skill for any photographer of people, it can often yield a fairly predictable result: a straightforward likeness of the subject, created with a flattering lens in flattering light with a flattering composition. The subject may be pleased with the results, but it's not a very interesting photograph. And in the constant, endless stream of images we consume daily, the portrait is likely forgotten as quickly as it appeared. A truly creative portrait comes from the two-sided exchange between the subject and the photographer, with both parties working together to create an image that goes beyond the simple representation of the subject. The end result is not an image that simply breaks the rules--it's an engaging photograph that both captures the essence of the subject and compels the viewer to stop and take notice. In The Creative Portrait, photographer and author Nick Fancher walks you through a plethora of ideas and techniques for making such creative work. Known for imagery that is bold, colorful, expressive, and widely varied, Nick has built a career by going against the grain. The result has been a consistent output of innovative and striking photographs. In this book, Nick will help you go beyond the conventional approach and explore the endless possibilities that come with intentionally breaking the rules. He'll teach you all about: -The gear he uses, and his overall approach to shooting -Why it's so important to practice photographing paper, plastic, and plants -Multiple long exposure techniques for creating unique and expressive images -Blocking, directing, and concentrating light with cookies, flags, gobos, and snoots -Shooting through glass for numerous creative effects -How he employs smoke, mirrors, and projectors in his work -And much more Throughout the book, Nick includes behind-the-scenes photos and diagrams of his shoots, as well as Lightroom post-processing techniques so you can follow along. He also includes over a dozen creative prompts to actively push you to go beyond your own comfort zone in your photography in order to create compelling portraiture.

Sensational Modernism: Experimental Fiction and Photography in Thirties America