MAPS by Panel - the Journey

Details: Written by Phillipa Frederiksen

MAPS by Panel - The Journey

The idea of submitting an “art portfolio” for MAPS really interested me as I have, from the beginning of my “picture taking/making”, always adventured into the creative realms of this art form.

The portfolio requirement is 20 mono and 10 coloured prints or vice versa.

One of my high achieving friends agreed to be my mentor. Lorraine Jones, now residing in NZ, is an amazing Nature Photographer and also an artist.

Eventually, I whittled the images down to 100, then Lorraine helped me to vet the last 50 and so on!

I had printed around a hundred of A3 photos on a high-quality paper by the time we got down to the final selection. In hindsight I should not have printed the images, I would have just laid them out in Camera Raw so that Lorraine could see them. Unfortunately, I kept thinking that this was the final edition…. until Lorraine suggested something else! ….. She was an excellent Mentor!

To decide on the final placement of the images I would put them side by side….and would then have to reverse the photo, slightly change the colours etc, so that the images flowed from one to another. This was quite a long process.

I wanted to have the colours and/or textures of one image lead into the colours and/or textures of the next image, to have the “Line” of one image lead into the next and to make sure that the Direction of the portraits complemented each other.

Because the portfolio had to be sent to various assessors in Western Australia, I purchased a 20 page, A3 Plastic Page book, as I thought it would survive the rigours of travel.

The Contact Page, showing how the images should be placed should they be taken out of the plastic envelopes/pages.

Philosophy

Objective: To explain the development of my photographic journey over the years.

2016

I can photograph Portraits, Landscapes and Action photos etc. but my spirit soars and twists above the norm. I am moving on.
Since then I have been developing and creating images from my cameras both on my computer and on my iPhone.
I like to explore the combination of impossible images, blending, changing and distorting them.
I look at shapes, light and colours and how they relate to each other.
Sometimes my images become too complicated, sometimes too excessive and that's when I work to simplify the image.
I like impressionist visions of life and nature. I love minimalism.
In my submission, I have started with simple art images and progressed to more complicated images.
My backgrounds/textures have been painted and/or taken by myself.
Each of the cameras, that I used, has had their special limitations which I have endeavoured to maximise to the image's advantage.
Likewise, a lot of the original editing has been done on my iPhone or iPad. I have had to work around those limitations (these limitations have been underwritten by my own inability to sit at a computer for long periods).
I enjoy helping others with their own journeys either on a one to one basis or at group talks and demonstrations.
My photographic journey continues to explore the development of new technologies and challenges.
I have endeavoured to present my images in a cohesive manner either by category, line shape and where appropriate, by colour.

Usually, you are required to have a single theme for MAPS. In a way, my overall theme WAS Creative Imagery.
However, I took the risky path of dividing the portfolio into sub-sections. The first 10 mono images were taken in Germany and the Czech Republic.
The first 8 images were very light, almost minimalistic images, the last of which leads up to the very dark, contrasty night images 9 and 10.

Along similar lines images, 11 and 12 are dark and contrasty but were taken in Australia.

The fence of the sheep yards takes us into the dark edge of the first of 8 creative, mono images. These images become lighter in the middle then darker again for images 19 and 20. Image 1 sort of leads us into the story and image 20 closes that section.

With the coloured photos, the Eagle takes us into the selection and the children playing on the beach close that selection.

While trying to match the lines in the mono images was not easy, matching the colours from the edge of one coloured image to the colours in the edge of the next image was quite difficult! Textures from one image were often taken into the next image.


1. Two Posts	2. Tree with Church	3. Country Road	4. Road to Village

5. Reeds on Lake	6. Swans on Lake	7. Mountain Lake	8. Tree on Hill

9. Girl Through Archway in Telc	10. Bike in Quedlinburg	11. Interlude	12. Old Sheep Yards

13. Night and Day	14. Twins	15. Soiree	16. Bonnie's Day

17. Chelsea's Hat	18. On Cloud Nine	19. Teapot Books and Scarf	20. Teapot and Vase



21. Bird Song	22. Keep her Safe	23. Fabulous Woman	24. The Busker

25. Lady in the Green Hat	26. Not Happy	27. Spirited	28. The Fisherman

29. Celebrate Sunrise	30. Enjoy the New Day