Refining Catling responses using visual influence from Yuji Hamada

I was reading a book based on photography seeing as I have been working into my own photographs to produce responses from my artists. I came across Yuji Hamada who is a Japanese photographer and questions what it means to see. He is fascinated by what is represented in a flat image and alters his photographs to do this. 'His approach is that of an excavator' - which reflects how he uses a reductive process to create his artwork. (quote taken from the book I read). Hamada takes apart the fibres of a photograph with tweezers, separating the cyan, magenta and yellow layers of a digital Polaroid. To make this easier, he soaks the photographs in water three or four times so that the layers easily pull apart.

As I do not have access to a Polaroid camera, I have decided to alter this process by using a printing technique as I have already explored one already - screenprinting. I have looked at printing acrylic paint onto the compositions that I made when responding to Guy Catling using household objects. I took a photograph of an old lamppost on Spon Street whilst in Coventry as I thought its shape was uniquel. To emphasise this I have selected this part to remove and add colour and pattern to it. As there is foliage in the background, I chose a wallpaper with in so that there is harmony throughout the composition. As I took the photo so that the lamppost perfectly divided it, I ma representing how stereotypes divide groups of people and segregate them form each other. The light blue colour of the wallpaper reflects how many people are calm and settled about this division happening in society. This is because the cool colour connotes a settled mood and one of no change. I have printed with orange over the top to contrast this colour and idea to show how there should be a change within society based on stereotyping.



I wanted to change the way that black and white and colour is portrayed in terms of layering. I have done this by using a colour photograph and newspaper. The paint over the top of this composition further emphasises the bright colours that are provided from the graffiti. ASs graffiti is usually seen as a rogue art form, I wanted to juxtapose this by adding more delicate marks to defy the stereotype. I wanted to make a more compelling shape with the photograph and so I have cut away a large majority of it. This reflects the diversity of a person and how individuality should be celebrated.