research extra: Digital Editing

AES + F group

Our heroes are teenagers – emerging from the most heroic of life's phases. The teenage moment is the moment when a young shepherd can take heart and gain victory over a hulking giant and when an abandoned child can find the inner unction to extract the magic sword out of a rock to become king, vanquishing all enemies. All of our young heroes are conquerors in the virtual world. Their enemy is absent, and pain and suffering are forbidden by the very nature of the game. They are so alienated that nothing, not even their common virtual battlefield, inhibits their giving themselves over to pure personal exploit, to securing victory over an enemy that does not exist.

Key words: Children - War - Future - Playstation - Xbox - Virtual - Battle - Hero - Computer Games - Reality

Aislinn Leggett

"My work has become a way for me to explore the notion of memory. To create my images, I not only borrow from my own memories but I also use family photographic archives as well as found images. Memories or remembering a moment is often convoluted and difficult to reenact precisely. Working in a photomontage style permits me to deconstruct existing images and recreate fictitious moments and landscapes, enabling the process of trying to understand how memory functions and how events can easily be altered or shifted."

Key words: Montage - Memory - Distortion - Fiction - Nostalgia - Layers - Time - Death - Family - Remember

Alain Paiement

He constructs photographs that depict multiple spaces simultaneously - conventional building-scapes that are deconstructed and sewn back together again into a seamless quilt.

Key words: Space - Above - Angles - Plan - Montage - Joiner - Inside - Habitat - Organised - Objects

Amirali Ghasemi

“In the series Tehran Remixed Amirali Ghasemi shows young urban Iranians socializing, their faces and other areas of exposed skin blanked out to protect their identities. The social activities depicted seem as though they could be happening in any city around the world. Yet the fact that the identities of the participants in these seemingly ordinary acts must be so starkly concealed underscores how specific the situation is to Iran.”

Key words: Iran - Youth - Western Culture - Hidden - Religion - City Life - Identity - Skin - Conceal

Aziz & Cucher

‘dystopia, seems to document a pathology. it seems clear that at some level this pathology is not only dermatological, but cultural, commenting, perhaps, on the gradual but waxing loss of identity and the means of communication in a technological environment that promotes anonymity and conformity’.

Key words: Dystopia - Future - Communication - Identity - Anonymous - Technology - Technology - Clone

Bill Kouirinis

"The tremor series began when I noticed multiple reflections in a storefront window. I sat there one day and watched as people buzzed by and were oblivious to my observations. It mimicked their busy lives with numerous reflections, combining sometimes beautifully and at other times ghostly."

Key words: Reflections - Multiple - Busy - Movement - Action - Time - Layers - Trail - Shadows

Bobby Neel Adams

"Two photographs of the same person, from different periods of time (child and adult) are spliced together. In this fusion a jump-of-time is established at the tear."

Key words: Time - Old - Young - Memory - Past - Present - Change - Nostalgia - Death - Innocence

Brad Carlile

He keeps his camera on a tripod and exposes film throughout the day, which yields fantastical effects, superimposing wildly varying lighting conditions onto the same frame. As the hues overlap, they produce acidic lime greens and chartreuses, fuchsias and ruby reds in wholly unnatural combinations as light emanates from lamps and television screens and bounces off mirrors and windows...

Key words: Colour - Lighting - Long Exposure - Neon - Hotel - Room - Surreal - Unnatural - Hue - Saturation - Time - Night

Catherine Yass

Her colour images are given a strong presence as a result of being mounted on light boxes; the use of solarisation around the figures' heads, like auras, further enhances their luminosity.

Key Words: Colour - Hue - Solarization - Alien - Interior - Space - Luminous - Aura

Carlo Van de Roer

The term “orb” is typically used to describe circular artifacts in photographs-artifacts which have been interpreted by some as spirits. Despite being debunked and explained (most commonly as backscatter from precipitation or dust), there’s a surprisingly widespread belief that orb photographs document the supernatural. There are organizations, conferences, hunts, field experts, detectors and websites dedicated to spiritualist orb photography.

Key words: Orb - Unexplained - Supernatural - Photoshop - Colour - Signs - Circular

Carsten Witte

A stunning series by Carsten Witte, where he takes models, some of them nude and paints a light, almost illusionary skull piece on top of their face. Says Witte, "One main idea behind my work is the belief that everything is constantly changing but photography can preserve the moment. Beauty is almost nothing without the knowledge of how fast it will fade..."

Key words: Portrait - Skull - Life - Death - Xray - Beauty - Model - Age - Fear - Decay - Time

Chris Scarborough

Chris Scarborough is a master at taking images of people and manipulating them to look like twisted Japanese anime characters. Just look at those huge eyes. His intent is to challenge us to think about the cultural concepts of cuteness, beauty and perfection. Scarborough enjoys creating images that leave viewers on uneasy ground, wondering about what kind of predicament these people could have gotten themselves into.

Key words: Anime - Culture - Beauty - Narrative - Manipulate - Uneasy - Dilated - Photoshop

Curtis Mann

He specifically looks for records of violence in places like Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Kenya. He then makes his own color prints from these images and physically and chemically removes evidence that would allow us to trust the photographic truth of what we see. We are left with small figures floating in a blank, devastated world, going through poetic dances that suggest, but don’t guarantee, a new beginning. They do, however, cause us to question in a complicated way what is in front of us, rather than simply accepting photographic truth.

Key words: Photographic Truth - Evidence - Belief - War - Devastation - Narrative - Violence - History - Conflict

Damien Rudd

In this series I explored the space and form of objects in relation to their surroundings. The plays of positive / negative space, line and direction, attraction and repulsion. The content of the images does not contain any immediate uniform in narrative but instead the consistency is presented through style, lighting, tones and colour treatment. This is done intentionally to avoid the viewer from becoming distracted by the narrative and therefore forgoing the opportunity to consider notions of space and all its implications, the matter it confines, the space between objects - under chairs, between a hand and a torso, whether the space is confined within or without.

Key words: Attraction - Repulsion - Space - Narrative - Colour - Confined - Air - Proximity

Dorothee Golz

The fundamental question of my work is what is reality formed upon? A typical process in my work is the combination of different media of expression; reality is based upon our personal, historical and cultural background. In my digital paintings my perception of reality is confronted with the perception of reality during the Renaissance.

Key words: Painting - Famous - Media - History - Reality - Surreal - Time - Perception - Pretense - Stereo types

Dryden Goodwin

Dryden Goodwin creates haunting films, drawings and photographs. His work has a strong ongoing relationship with time and urban spaces and the supernatural. In his work he has consistently focused on the human figure and the portrait form, the resulting work offering a speculative vision that considers the process of looking and representing, both in relation to what is experienced and what is seen.

Key words: Portrait - Haunting - Life - Blood - Supernatural - People - Thoughts - Vessels

Elle Moss

Key words: Double Exposure - Movement - Female - Life - Death

Fabian Marti

Marti hardly ever uses digital media, but works with analogue photography and with a scanner. The application of these media and particularly the darkening black effect of the left open scanner emphasise the materiality of the photography with dust spots. In some of the works, Marti uses the scanner directly as a camera by placing the objects to be portayed directly on its surface.

Key words: Scanner - Detail - Darkness - Information - Composition - Contrast - Death - Silhouette - Light

Fatimah Tuggar

"Money & Matter" is made up of a series of nine images that examine the relationship of human beings to capital, on a personal level and from a social perspective. In this series I use entertainment technologies as a vehicle for commentary on various and conflicting histories, journeys and materials in our experience. The symbols and expressions of money exist in relation to matter as both subject and object of what we desire and fear. The tension between the money's power gaming and elements of distraction and the substance of what matters in peoples lives are at the core of this series.

Key words: Money - Cash - Power - Capitalism - Culture - Desire - East - West - People - War - Class - Geography

Feng Bin

I am fascinated by the surrealistic and poetic atmosphere captured in realistic space. Photography, for me, is a tool to observe the world around us, and to reflect visually the “personal truth”. In order to capture the “subjective reality”, I use a large format camera and work in black and white. And I prefer the traditional way to print in fiber-based paper. With its wide range of tones and archival quality, the final images could accord with the pre-visualized scenes in my mind and treasure the “personal truth” in an unfading memory.

Key words: Space - Light - Dark - Empty - Tone - Streets - Memory - Atmosphere - Alone - Maze

Francesco Brunotti

Italian photographer Francesco Brunotti (Francesco Brunotti) is known in the world of photography as a photographer creates an exciting, full of fantasy projects. The collection, “Where’s your head?” Show people in different environments, which share one feature-they are headless. Thus the viewer to read the meaning of photos with body language.

Key words: Heads - Body Language - Fantasy - Action - Narrative - Surreal - Photoshop

Gil Blank

Blank’s reductive aesthetic is enhanced by his systematic approach. Starting with the classic large-format view camera, he captures his images on color film. After digital scanning he selectively obliterates information, superimposing the remaining image on a field of solid color, emphasizing its artificiality.

Key words: Colour - Artificial - Space - Focus - Blank - Moments

Gilbert and George

The pair are perhaps best known for their large scale photo works, known as The Pictures. The early work in this style is in black and white, later with hand-painted red and yellow touches. They proceeded to use a range of bolder colours, sometimes backlit, and overlaid with black grids. Their work has addressed a wide variety of subject matter including religion and patriotism. The two artists also often appear in their own "pictures". They have described their "pictures" as a sort of "visual love letter from us to the viewer".

Key words: Imagery - Layers - Self - Colour - Pattern - Light - Religion - Patriotism

Hannah Guy

Hannah Guy’s new body of work consists of animations constructed from still images and a series of composite photographs made with a large-format camera. Each series revolves, quite literally, around the tree. The work creates a reality in continual reassessment, removing the comfort of a fixed reality.

Key words: Position - Revolve - Reality - Layered - Point of View - Tree - Nature - Shadow - Movement

Idris Khan

To create his works, Khan often photographs a variety of material - sometimes borrowed, sometimes of his own creation - in series and digitally layers the results, accentuating certain areas or adjusting the light, shade or opacity of the images so that resonant composites are created. The results spark new thoughts about the original content, or open up seams of interpretation.

Key words: Series - Layered - Echo - Light - Opacity - Multiple - Photographs - Quran - Buildings

Ignacio Torres

This project began from the theory that humans are made of cosmic matter as a result of a stars death. I created imagery that showcased this cosmic birth through the use of dust and reflective confetti to create galaxies. The models organic bodily expressions as they are frozen in time between the particles suggest their celestial creation. In addition, space and time is heightened by the use of three-dimensional animated gifs. Their movement serves as a visual metaphor to the spatial link we share with stars as well as their separateness through time.

Key words: GIF - Animation - Movement - Cosmic - Galaxies - Time - Creation - Space - Stars

James Welling

With the effect of color filters in Welling’s digital camera, the light that constantly pours into the house gives the space a vibrantly ethereal glow. Hues of red, yellow, and sometimes the entire rainbow spectrum are used. What to the naked eye would appear to be reality is morphed and enhanced in New Pictures 3 into a realm of visual delight; a new perspective on an architectural site.

Key words: Colour - Glow - Spectrum - Filters - Light - Hue - Reality - Surreal

Jason Salavon

Jasper James

Jasper James is a Beijing based photographer originating from the UK and a graduate of photography from London’s College of Printing. He shoots a mixture of editorial, design and advertising work. This series is from a personal body of work shot in Tokyo, Japan and Shenzhen, China. These gorgeous overviews of the city life reflect interesting layers of construction and open narratives through silhouetted onlookers.

Key words: Double Exposure - Narrative - City Life - People - Thoughts - Layers - Location - Shadow

Jeff Wall

Jennis Li Cheng Tien

Jennis Li Cheng Tiens ‘Have A Nice Day’ project uses chance images found on the web to create these beautiful digital works. They seem to glow in a way not unlike a watercolour painting. It’s amazing what you can achieve with a bit of photoshop manipulations such as blur or neon glow.

Key words: Neon - Abstract - Colour - Portrait - Glow - Found Images - Memory - Movement

Jenny Odell

John Baldessari

Julia Wang

Julie Blackmon

Kelli Connell

Ken Kitano

Ken Kitano “our face: Asia”/Seigensha art publishing co. Ken Kitano creates composite photographs using multiple portraits of people who belong to particular groups. In each of these pieces, the “Individual” disappears from the photo paper, and is replaced by “our face”. Communities with diverse cultures, customs and standpoints are represented. The culmination of a 15-year-long project by Kitano, this book presents material gathered both in Japan and throughout Asia.

Krista Wortendyke

Iosif Kiraly

Lei Wei

Lissy Laricchia

‘Figuring out what my abilities and limitations are has let me be freer in my ideas. Previously I would have a great idea, shake my head because there was no way I could do it, and disregard it entirely. Since improving my photoshop skills when I have an outrageous idea, it just becomes a matter of simple planning out to make work’.

Key words: Surreal - Dream - Narrative - Falling - Flying - People - Imagination - Movement - Space

Maia Flore

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night,” Edgar Allan Poe. This is how these girls, carried away in the air by objects, let themselves travel through boundless landscapes. Flying towards dreamed lands, making real a complete attraction between the character, his ideal universe and the world they live in: that is where these girls lead us. Their contorted movements are merging with the shape of the one revealing their passion. Mix of an imaginary realism and childhood memories, these beings in levitation invite us to dream, limitlessly."

Key words: Dream - Sleep - Photoshop - Air - Escape - Travel - Movement - Surreal - Levitation

Mario Rossi

Massimiliano Caria

Matt Siber

Mika Ninagawa

Miki Takahashi

Miki Takahashi is a Tokyo-based photographer and a video creator. She’s interested in Motion Graphics, Design, Music Video, Film and Photography. I’m very impressed by her interesting double exposure works but she also does some great experimental photo manipulation.

Key words: Double Exposure - Portrait - Space - People - Thoughts - Manipulation - Experimental

Olivo Barbieri

Peter Garfield

Peter Kennard

Phillip Schumacher

Germany-based photographer Phillip Schumacher, aka Pipo, may have picked up photography only for a few years, but his work is full of promise of the most magical kind. Working with a Cannon eos 550Dand Olympus e-420, Pipo's work takes you on an imaginative wild ride into wonderland, where the world is full of magic and endless possibilities.

Key words: Photoshop - Dreams - Reality - Surrealism - Magic - Imagination - Possibilities - Narrative

Pierre Debusschere

Pierre Debusschere is a visual artist working in the fields of photography & video. He has shot editorials for several leading magazines such as Vogue Homme Japan and Citizen K, as well as being a regular contributor to Dazed & Confused. In his work, Debusschere strives to create an emotional connection by combining both moving and still-life elements alongside an innovative use of light … Going beyond the traditional processes involved in creating a fashion image, his work truly embodies the multimedia crossover.

Key words: Fashion - Animated - GIF - Emotions - People - Reflection - Light - Storm - Multimedia - Beauty

Sarah Charlesworth

Shawn Clover

Manipulating time is a theme photographers have used for decades with techniques like time-lapse, stop-motion and long-exposure photography. But one photographer caught our eye with a project that manipulates time with a very unique approach. Shawn Clover found a creative way to use Photoshop to tell the story of how San Francisco has recovered from the city’s 1906 earthquake. Clover put a twist on the traditional “before and after” format by taking his own present-day images and merging them with early post-earthquake photographs using Photoshop tools.