My sixth and final shoot took place in the city of Imperia, in the north of Italy. It is quite similar in style to my shoot around Harlow taking pictures of the various mosaics that I come across. However, these mosaics are much older, larger and have clearly had more time spent on them than the mosaic’s I found around Essex. Even after all this time of studying mosaics and photomosaics, I still find it fascinating when I see the intricate detail that goes into creating these pieces of art. The pebbles and stones used to create this large mosaic were all black or white, however, given that the mosaic was outside and had been around for a long period of time, some of the stones had mould or grass growing on them. I found this shoot could be compared to Emma Biggs project, where she created mosaics and photographed them. However, an obvious difference between our work is that I did not create these huge mosaics in Italy, I only photographed and uploaded them.
When editing my images, I thought of using the black and white filter on this whole shoot to get rid of all the stains and dirt marks found around the floor and walls of the buildings that featured the mosaics. I think this worked out quite well, given that the image now looks quite smooth and unblemished. The variety of shapes that I found on these buildings was extensive, as shown in the contact sheets above. Lines are very important in mosaics to distinguish individual shapes, and there are very clear and prominent lines in the majority of these images. As the lines spiral from outwards to in, your eyes are naturally drawn to the centre of the image. In the second image, the same effect is present, as with many of the other mosaic’s that I found at this particular location. I also considered tone when taking these photographs, given that the subject of the shoot was a black and white building and floor, and I think the various light and dark sections of the image are very noticeable, and I am pleased with the result. If I were to attempt this shoot again, I would instead shoot straight away with a black and white filter, as opposed to changing the colour and tones in the post production stage of this experimental shoot. However, I’m still content with the result of my shoot with the black and white photoshop filter, and really enjoyed taking these photographs.
dylanmannhazell 