Welcome to my blog! My name is Zoe, I am a tutor at DMUIC and I will use this blog to show students how to create digital work. My specialism is Photography however I love digital software, editing, and creating work digitally. I will be exploring all manner of exciting ideas and creating art and media throughout this blog. So, welcome all new students please follow my blog and you will find examples of all the posts you need to create to help you create your own.
I will begin by looking at and researching something I have been looking at recently that pleases me and I would like to share it with you. Recently I have been looking at some Persian Art and I was considering this and colour photography. Persia is now modern Iran, it was Persia until 1935. Persia has a long history of epic and beautiful artwork that tells so many stories and is often painted using gouache which makes the colours long-lasting and truly stunning to view. The above image is from the Wellcome Collection and if you ever get that chance you should visit the Wellcome Centre in London as they always have great artwork on display and as a research institute mix science and art in an interesting and engaging manner.
I am discussing the Persian art as I do love the story, the colours and they make me smile every time I study a work, Robinson states in the book Persian Art (1965); 'Apart from effectively illustrating the narrative in hand, the chief aim of the Persian artists was to give pleasure. Indeed, it would be foolish, when looking at Persian painting or drawing, to ask the sort of question that springs to mind when we contemplate Western pictorial art such as"What is the artist's message for us?" The Persian artist's message is simple and invariable: "This is the most beautiful and effective illustration I can make to this story; I hope you will like it"' (Robinson: 1965:14)
The image above from 1649 shows the Paladins; 'In medieval European legend, the paladins were 12 brave knights who were loyal followers of Charlemagne, the king of the Franks and founder of the Holy Roman Empire. The name paladin —from a word meaning a person attached to the court—implies that the knights may have resided at the royal palace.'(Anon: 2019). The Image above is inspired by Chinese motif of purple swirling clouds, in this image the vivid clouds (which look actually more like water, as there seem to be fish swimming) curve over the different coloured horses which the knights ride, in all their glory. The deep mauves, red and blue colours are exquisite and all the knights appear to be covered with umbrellas to protect them from the weather. Persian calligraphy surrounds the image to frame this and may have been a miniature or illustration for a manuscript.
As a photographer, I mostly work in black and white, as I find colour is actually more complex and that is why I admire these images and in photography today when I do work in colour the best way to see the image is to print with a high-end printer. I have a Pro-1000 printer that uses dye ink which gives images a 'natural glossy finish' (StinkyInk 2001-2023) The printer uses 8 different inks to produce the whole gamut of colours but just as important is the paper used to print on and often using pearlescent or for a more almost painterly finish gold fibre silk paper the results can be just as beautiful. The interesting thing about coloured digital photographic prints is that we do not yet know how they will stand the test of time, as they have not yet lived long enough! I wonder if in 300 years these images will be found and wondered at or whether as Baudrillard stated; 'this is no longer a photograph and, liter-ally speaking, it is no longer even an image. These shots may be said, rather, to be part of the murder of the image. That murder is being perpetrated continually by all the images that accumulate in series, in 'thematic' sequences, which illustrate the same event ad nauseam, which think they are accumulating, but are, in fact, cancelling each other out, till they reach the zero degree of information.' (Baudrillard J. 2016)
References
Robinson B.W. (1965) Drawings of the Masters: Persian drawings from the 14th to 19th Century, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Shorewood Publishers, Inc, New York
Anon (2019) Myths and legends of the world. Encyclopedia.com. Available at: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/paladins# (Accessed: 02 October 2023).
No. 53 the Paladins in the snow (2021) The Shahnameh: a Persian Cultural Emblem and a Timeless Masterpiece. Available at: https://shahnameh.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore/objects/no-53-the-paladins-in-the-snow (Accessed: 02 October 2023).
StinkyInk (2001-2023) Canon Pro-1000. Available at: https://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/printers/reviews/canon-pixma-pro-100-review# (Accessed: 02 October 2023).
Baudrillard J. (2007) Why hasn't everything already disappeared?, Seagull Books, London
