Seaside Contacts

Song Panorama

Extra Credit

Final Rendition

Uelsmann

Hunt

Basically, my process of recreating one of Jerry Uelsmann's photos didn't go as I had originally planned. Rather than recreating one of the many images he has created, I decided to reflect upon his entire style so that I could experience the true Uelsmann style for myself. Overall, my creation is composed of a total of six photos that I took during the spring break shooting session. The mother duck and her reflection, the lake with the trees on both sides, the sky and the sun, the bird feeder, the duckling, and the reflected bark are all separate images placed ontop of one another using difference foregrounds and backgrounds. Each individual photo was desaturated before being placed onto the canvas for the final rendition. The levels, along with the brightness/contrast of each photo was slightly altered in order to bring out Uelsmann's great talents using black and white. After the images were compiled onto the final canvas, the levels, brightness/contrast were all slightly altered once more in order to get the detailed lighting effects just right. It was difficult to come up with an original idea for my rendition on my own, but there was inspiration from many of Uelsmann's photos. I attempted to express every aspect of his unique style into this single image.

FINAL Rendition Image

Rendition Contacts

Artist Worksheet

Will Hunt

Jerry Uelsmann

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Early Info (school, early work, etc.): Jerry attended high school at Cooley High School in the inner city of Detroit. He did not earn good grades and decided to pick up photography as just a hobby at first. While in high school, he worked part time assisting a photographer at a studio; Jerry was shooting weddings in high school. After high school, he joined a two-year program at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) in order to be a portrait photographer. Eventually, RIT expanded to a four-year institution with both photographic science and illustration programs. After leaving RIT, Jerry went on to Indiana University. There, he began working on obtaining his Master of Fine Arts degree in the art department. After obtaining his Master's (1960), he began teaching photography at the Universtity of Florida.

-His first major solo exhibition was held at the art museum in Jacksonville, Florida (1963).

-became associate professor at University of Florida (1966) and elected to the board of directors of the Society for Photographic Education

-awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for "Experiments in Multiple Printing Techniques in Photography" (1967)

-made a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in the U.K. (1973)

-became graduate research professor at University of Florida (1974)

Inspiration: From an early age, he wanted to recreate other photographer's images because he thought he could do better than the original. He imagnes what he wants the image to appear as, then, rather than planning out his entire process, Jerry experiments in the darkroom.

-believes photography is both camera and computer oriented

-wishes more photographers used darkrooms instead of computers

“Photographs,” Uelsmann argued, “could do more than merely describe literal objects and scenes; they could evoke elusive states of feeling and thinking triggered by irrational and imaginative juxtapositions of disparate images”.

Uelsmann set about to convince critics that “photography offered alternatives to the conventional ‘purist’ sensibility that had driven the medium since the time of Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand”.

Influences: His major influence was his University Lecturer, Minor White. White encouraged Jerry to trust in his intuitive self. White taught Jerry to play with his ideas and use the style, "I wonder what would happen if...".

-Earlier in his life, he was influenced by Harry Callahan, Frederic Sommer, Wynn Bullock and Edward Western. They gave him visions to explore.

-Ralph Hattersley

Images Chosen:

Image #1

I selected this image because black and white images appeal to me more than any other kind of image. I know that the image is surreal, but the way Jerry has composed it keeps leading me to believe that it could be real, which makes his images surreal. The image also has a holy feel to it. I feel as if I would see either this image or one similar to it in Church or even sunday school/ CCD.

Recreation:

Water

-take pictures of Sylvan Lake or another still body of water

-photoshop out everything but the water

-find tutorial to create glowing trail following the man in the water

Sky

-either find tutorial to render clouds and glowing effect in sky OR take my own pictures of sky during an overcast early afternoon (most likely 1 or 2 PM)

Man

-use a model

-he won't be standing in the water

*if the photoshopped experiment of placing him in the water doesn't appeal to me, i'll take a picture of my model standing in the lake

*the wings will also, obviously, be photoshopped on after attempting to take a picture of some type of large bird (turkey buzzard, hawk, etc.)

Birds

-go to Delaware River at Burlington City waterfront or Florence waterfront and take multiple pictures of seagulls

-3 of the best ones will be photoshopped in the final image

Image #2

Recreation:

Hill

-go to the dam at Sylvan Lake and take a picture of the dam/hill from the bottom, wooded area

Tree

-go to Green Acres or another heavily-wooded area where there will still be smaller, leafless trees

Flower

-find a sunflower or another large, similar-looking flower

Style: Jerry Uelsmann takes photographs of all differenct types of images, whether they be buildings, people, or natural objects, such as trees or flowers. He then comes up with surreal ideas in his mind, which he beings to life in the darkroom. In the darkroom, he combines his chosen images using different foregrounds and backgrounds. His final product usually contains things that one wouldn't normally see combined.

For example, one of Jerry's images includes a boulder on a hill. This boulder is accompanied with a handful of smaller boulders trailing down the side of the hill. In the middle of the largest boulder, there is a doorway. In the doorway resides a door and a set of stairs leading upward.

**The way he composes his images into a surrealistic vision of art is his most iconic and impressive expression of his style.**