Hayward Gallery - London Visit

On the 17th November we went on a trip to London to visit 3 different Galleries Somerset House, The National Portrait Gallery and the Hayward Gallery. Each Gallery was completely different, with both the type of work and the was that it was exhibited. The Hayward Gallery contained two types of work, one half of the Gallery was by the artist George Condo, his work was in an animated style and was quite strange. The other piece of work in the Gallery was by Pipilotti Rist, this was very interesting in the ways that this work had been produced and shown. The National Portrait Gallery hels the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize which consisted of different types of portraits by a number of artists, there was a range of varitey with each portrait and they were very interesting. And finally Somerset House exhibited '20 years of the dazed and confused' Magazine, this was really interesting and had a wide range of interesting Fashion Photography.

My favourite exhibition that we visited was the Pipilotti Rist in the Hayward Gallery, the exhibition consisted of sculptures, videos and other pieces of Artwork that showed her career from when it began in the 1980's to the present day. The exhibition is named ' Eyeball Massage'. The exhibition itself is very energetic, although has a calming and relaxed feeling to it, in the way it has soothing music and flowing movement within the videos exhibited.

Throughout the exhibition there were so many different videos and each one was shown in its own special way, especially ones that weren't shown too obviously on a big screen, some were placed in small holes in the floor so you really had to look into it, others were projected onto material that was suspended from the ceiling. My favourite part of the exhibition is the way in which she allows the audience to be incorporated within her work, as it allows a personal connection between the viewer and the work, the audience do not then feel rushed, they can walk around at their own pace. I feel that the atmosphere in the exhibition was very relaxed and calming, it took you into a world of peace and quietness. I think this was due to the soothing noises and ambient lighting, together with the soft flowing movement of the videos, none of the videos were showing aggressive or harsh movements. Combining this peaceful sound such as trees blowing in the light breeze made the exhibition more interesting as it made you feel you were personally in the videos.

http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/hayward-gallery-visual-arts

I really enjoyed this exhibition, I found the ways the videos were shown very interesting and unique. Even though they are not really photography related and more video, I still like the attitude that it portrays, I think it works better with video than it would have perhaps with photography, due to the fact that you are able to see the flowing movements. This is an exhibition I would definately visit again in the future and I think it is a technique definately keep in mind for the future.

The Invention Of Photography

A photograph is created by light falling onto a light sensitive surface usually by using film or digitally, most are to be created by using a camera and by using the lens to focus the visible wavelength of light that is also visible to the human eye.  The term 'Photograph' was coined by Sir John Herschel in 1839 and is based on the Greek term 'Phos' meaning light and 'Graphe' meaning drawing.

The first black and white photograph was made in 1822 by French inventor  Joseph Nicephore Niepce built on a discovery by Johann Heinrich Schultz that silver mixture darkens under exposure to light.

The process of this technique was refined by Louis Daguerre, he found that by firstly exposing the silver to the Iodine vapour, before exposure then to the mercury vapour which was heated to 75 Celsius and exposed them to light for several minutes, after the photograph was taken the image was then 'Fixed' in salt water. This is what then led to the famous Daguerreotype. Most of his work consisted of portraits as they were thought to be more rare and sought after, this process took several minutes and differed from his pictures of the streets in Paris which showed no human activity or and people in the street, this was not because he didn't photograph any people, due to there being a long exposure with movement the people became invisible, this was when the faster lens' were introduced for portraiture. 

In the 1840s the first attempts of colour photography was tested. Early results were encouraged by obtaining a solar spectrum by projecting it onto a surface, this proved to be successful, but the dim  image found in the camera required an exposure for hours even days. Over the next 70 years or so, experiments increased and raised hopes making nothing of practical value. The 'Three Colour Method' was first suggested in 1855  by Scottish Physicist James Clerk Maxwell.

In the late 1981, Sony invented the first electronic camera called the 'Sony Mavica' This was a new camera that didn't have a film to work and was the first commercial electronic camera. After images were taken on the camera they were then put onto a television monitor or colour printer to be viewed. Event though this was technically the first electronic camera to be made, it is not considered to be a true digital camera, it was just the start. Since the 1970's Kodak had invented a number of sensors that converted light into pictures, until Kodak then came up with the worlds first mega pixel sensor that produced 1.4 million pixels and was capable of recording a 5 x 7 inch quality print. 

This is the Sony Mavica, which was the first electric commercial cameras.

http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/stilphotography.htm