Moulding opinions' Blog

BP National Portrait Award 2010

mouldingopinions — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:17:41 +0000

This weekend I went to see the BP Portrait Award Exhibition, I went to this because I envy artists, as a photographer I can only create things which are physically possible to make, but artists have the advantage of being able to create anything that their imagination and equipment allows them to. As someone who cannot draw very well I admire those who can paint and draw things to a realistic extent, some of the portraits featured in this exhibition showed artists with an amazing amount of skill, with some portraits looking as realistic as photographs – it is almost impossible to see the brush strokes. I was in awe of the talent that was presented in this exhibition and the amount of skill some of the artists showed.

Although some of the work captured you in a lock of amazement, there was some work which left me baffled as to why it was present in the exhibition. I also disagreed with the judges choice of winners, I thought of the artists that did not win deserved the prize more than the winners. But I do recommend the exhibition to everyone, there is a very talented group of people in the exhibition.

Informative Art (II)

mouldingopinions — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:57:22 +0000

Ben Sargent is a Texan born political cartoonist. In researching for my major project I have tripped up on various political cartoonists who, with the help of their talent can paint a humorous and informative politically motivated picture.Sargent focuses closely on political issues in the United States, his work focuses on current political issues and has earned him a Pulitzer Prize.

In researching political cartoons it has helped me figure out ways to sum up a political issue or statement in a single image. Unlike Latuff, Sargent uses Text bubbles to aid his story further.

Inspirational & Informative Artwork

mouldingopinions — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:44:00 +0000

On researching my major project I came across a political cartoonist who creates images in reply to current world political stories. Carlos Latuff has created artwork which focuses on issues of War and and other stories which he seems to have passionate opinions on. The images often carry with them a strong message with a hint of dark humour to help convey his point. Similarly to the early propaganda posters I had discussed earlier- Latuff also uses a mixture of colour and text to help anchor his message. The creator of these cartoons seems to be extensively informed in politics and on one of his blog pages he urges – “All of my artworks published in this blog are COPYLEFT. You are strongly encouraged to forward them to people and reproduce them in your website/magazine/bulletin/poster/t-shirt/etc.”

I am hoping to be able to create a similar use of visual and text to anchor my desired message in the images I am hoping to create, it seems that the intended audience for this work is people who already have a base of political knowledge.

Propaganda Posters of Yesterday

mouldingopinions — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:36:41 +0000

Here are some examples of propaganda posters from World War II, the posters were used to promote American action in the War and gain support from the public. The posters may seem obviously propagandistic to the average viewer today but when they were released they worked well with other forms of propaganda in gaining public support. The method of image infused propaganda has worked well since the World Wars and are used commonly today in helping political activity and the formation of political opinions amongst the public.

The posters were often hand drawn – as photography was not utilised in the media as much as it is today, the posters were often bold in colour and text would always anchor the image towards it desired reading, without the text the image does less to gain its desired reading, but the combination of the bold colourful image and big text conveys the desired message with ease.

Collecting my thoughts…

mouldingopinions — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:00:11 +0000

The reason for this blog is to gather my thoughts, ideas, opinions and images and place them neatly on a digital page (The digital page also means I don’t have to buy any glue). My blog will focus on the evolution of a major stills project I am creating for my final year of study at university. The project focuses on a combination of topics in relation to the Western Governments (mainly Britain and the U.S) and the Western Media. The project has been inspired by my dissertation topic and research, the paper was entitled; Moulding the Public’s Opinion on War: the Relationship of Western Governments, News Media and Photography. The paper discusses the use of photography by the Government and Western Media in moulding opinions particularly in times of War. The aim of my final project is to create a series of images which explores the notion of propaganda, media and government.