Artists as photographers

A01 | Zmina Hawthorne

Merve ozaslanMerve Özaslan is an Istanbul based artist that creates collages, she has a number of photos which have been coined ‘Natural Act’ which is ‘composed by several collages based on the questions of the relation between nature and humanity’. In the Natural Act, she mostly uses vintage photographs and photographs of water barriers and nature such as leaves, trees etc. Each of the collages reflect natures dominance over urbanization.

ERIN CASEAward winning visual artist Michigan based artist, Erin Case focuses on collages who tends to put together surrealism and sincerity together in an image, Erin Case uses analog methods meaning that she creates her images by hand, using the cutting and pasting methods. Currently Erin Case is an undergraduate but her work has been internationally recognized.

WILLIAM MILLERWilliam Miller is a photojournalist from New York, USA. His work has been featured in magazines such as Harper’s and GQ and even the New York Post. Miller often creates abstract pieces of art through photography by ‘ruining polaroids’ and photoshopping his photographs to creates works of art.

INDEPTH ANALYSISANALYSE Merve Özaslan’s work reminded me a lot of 3D street art work as it works in the same way that the photograph does. In 3D street work, it often creates an optical illusion which creates the impression that the person standing on the art is elevated. In the Merve Özaslan’s work, she creates the same effect in the fact that the people in black and white look as if they are higher than the trees in the photograph. This is because of the way the photograph of the trees has been taken – from an ariel view, montaging this photograph with the urban, black and white photograph will create an optical illusion.INTERPRET Merve Özaslan creates her work with the use of ‘photo montaging’. A photo montage can be done on Photoshop in a digital process, or can be done manually using the cutting and pasting method.JUDGE In my opinion, I like Özaslan’s work because how the two photographs that she has put together work so well together. Although, I would use photographs that have been taken in more recent years. DESCRIBE The photograph above is of two ladies laughing together in their swimsuits. This photograph comes from the series by Merve Özaslan called ‘Natural Act’ in which she tried to show rural and urban environments in the same light.