Duane Michaels:(1998)Dr. Heisenberg’s Magic Mirror of Uncertainty.
Dr Heisenberg’s Magic Mirror of Uncertainty
Article about Dr Heisenberg's Magic Mirror of Uncertainty
I have started thinking outside of the box. Not only just focus on quality, colours, and compositions of the photographs, but more meaningful. I will like to write a story behind the pictures, to appeal something to the public or personal feeling from life.
Some original master's works of sequential images were shown in class. One of the artists called Duane Michael, his work attracted me a lot. Two ideas come up my head after I have seen these two sets of work.
For the first set of images, it is actually about Duane Michael was illustrating Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle with the mirror and how he found out it was strange, liquid-like and exciting. The most interesting thing is I had a different opinion of this series of shots. When I looked at them, I thought it is talking about reflection on human's faces when they see someone or being alone with a mirror. The emotions on the girl's face caught by the mirror were totally changed. This series of shots let me associate a hot debate in society, we all wear masks. We are performing a perfect image in front of others. We built a positive persona. In these pictures, I imaged the story was about a girl saw someone she does not like or not familiar with, said hi nicely and smiled. When that person was gone, her mask off and her face was exposed, the real emotion. I think it would be a good plan to work on. I want to take over this idea into the second series of his work. The experiment would be two people walk through a corridor with two sides mirror. Then we can see the details through those mirrors. I will use the same idea od Duane Michael's pieces. Two people come from the opposite side. When they meet in the middle of the street, they smiled or nod to each other.
In the second example, I inspired to make my work in a similar scene. I want to record a story about a homeless. It would be a person sits outside the supermarket in the morning. He asks:' Could anyone donate some money for me?" People are moving fast and no one answers him. Suddenly, a girl gives him a coin. I would like to catch the moment the girl is giving him the coin when a person walkthrough.
Here is my experiment with the first idea.
I placed my phone on the ground and set a countdown(3 seconds) for the shoot. I realized that it was not a good angle. I barely can not see the clear movement of those two people.
I put my mobile phone(iPhone 6S)on a chair in front of the mirror and set the angle in the centre that I can take images horizontally and the chair will not show in the pictures. Moreover, I was able to see two people clearly.
The pictures were too dark that I can not see the emotions on the faces, so I used PhotoScape X to make them brighter. Also, I made a strong contrast between the background and the people. It is because my T-shirt is yellow and it merely showed in these pictures.
I shot the series with a live effect on my phone. Therefore, I selected the key photo from each section.
At last, I combined all photos together in PhotoScape X and made them in the right order.
I decided to order them in two rows, four in each. It looks clearer than the previous one. The outcome was nice that these photos were taken at the same angle. And I like the movement of my hair when I was walking. There were some details I wanted to show. For example, the emotion changes on my face and the boy's face. Besides, the action of the boy putting the phone away when he saw me.
Here is my experiment with the first idea.
I placed my phone on the ground and set a countdown(3 seconds) for the shoot. I realized that it was not a good angle. I barely can not see the clear movement of those two people.
Photographed by Evelyn(2019), iPhone 6S
I put my mobile phone(iPhone 6S)on a chair in front of the mirror and set the angle in the centre that I can take images horizontally and the chair will not show in the pictures. Moreover, I was able to see two people clearly.
The pictures were too dark that I can not see the emotions on the faces, so I used PhotoScape X to make them brighter. Also, I made a strong contrast between the background and the people. It is because my T-shirt is yellow and it merely showed in these pictures.
I shot the series with a live effect on my phone. Therefore, I selected the key photo from each section.
At last, I combined all photos together in PhotoScape X and made them in the right order.
I decided to order them in two rows, four in each. It looks clearer than the previous one. The outcome was nice that these photos were taken at the same angle. And I like the movement of my hair when I was walking. There were some details I wanted to show. For example, the emotion changes on my face and the boy's face. Besides, the action of the boy putting the phone away when he saw me.
References: Duane Michael(2012), Photography, https://schwitters57.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/duane-michaels-photography-as-story/
Duane Michael's best photograph: French Vogue does quantum physics, Interview by Karin Andreasson(2015), https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/26/duane-michals-best-photograph-french-vogue-quantum-physics-heisenberg
Chance Metting, Photograph by Duane Michael(1972), published(2014) https://francishodgson.com/2014/01/20/making-it-up-is-so-very-hard-to-do/duane-michals-chance-meeting-1972/
5 Masks We Wear (2015), 5 Masks We Wear
Good that you have recreated Michals piece - I would have liked something individual however by recreating this I think you have really got the idea and you have clearly shown your process well done.
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