Extending using text

After studying Kruger further, I have extended my experiments by thinking more about backgrounds and the layout of the text. So, I have take inspiration from her work onto black and white photogrpahs of a person.
I took photographs of my brother and printed them out in black and white and then screenprinted over the top of them. As I printed the image on A5 and my stencil is an A4 size, I had to use a red ink so that the text would have been seen on both the white page and the black and white photograph. I am not happy with the outcome of these experiments as I the stencil is too large and is therefore covering a large amount of the photograph. I think this has resulted in the context of the photograph being lost as you cannot tell clearly enough that there is male as the subject.



As Kruger's text looks quite uniform, I chose to print text off a computer to get this equally structured look. I have looked at the way that Kruger arranges her text and I have stuck whole words and individual letters over the photographs. I noticed that sticking down each individual letter is effective in creating a shape and leading the viewer's eye in a certain direction. However, I think that where I have stuck down words diagonally, the writing looks most striking and prominent. Furthermore, I also printed the font in red so that I could use layering to create a contrast. I have been able to include all three colours in my selected palette in these compositions which I think works best from the get go as not only is there contrast between the black and white, there is also a sharp injection of colour from the red. I have layered the lettering onto black sugar paper, leaving a narrow perimeter around the outside so that the text is given more depth. This make the text look bolder and the black is defining each word/letter. Additionally, adding text like this means that I haven't clearly used any reductive process except from cutting out the lettering and so I have cut into the photographs. I have tried to do this so that the message is emphasised, having taken away sections of the photograph that direct the eye to the text. After having used this reductive process along with the layering, I think that when writing lines of text, it is most effective to keep each word together so that it looks more striking and solid across the composition. This is because, when I separated the letters in lines of text, the placement of the letters look extremely disjointed as there are a lot of letters and so there isn't harmony across the composition. Saying this, I think this technique works best when using one word as it reflects the disjointed and inaccurate nature of stereotypes within our society.