Title: Cream City Reflection Size: 214 x 461 Medium: photography Completion: July 2022 Exhibition TextMy piece, inspired by the work of photographer Andrew Prokos, explores the lines, shapes, and colors viewed in Milwaukee's cityscape. Similar to Prokos's work, my piece includes many geometric shapes created by the straight vertical and horizontal lines found in city architecture. The warm colors of the buildings symbolize the identity of Milwaukee known as "Cream City."
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Inspiration |
His photography consists of architecture, advertising, and fine arts. Regarding his work involving cities, Prokos's images commonly include clusters of tall buildings like towers and skyscrapers. While some of his work is in color, others are black and white, where contrast is only viewed between dramatic differences between light and dark values. In addition, much of his work surrounds New York's skyline, which creates asymmetric balance between the top and bottom half of his pieces. While the bottom halves of his images are clustered with buildings and city scenes, the top half is contains solely the gray or blue tones of the sky.
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In addition to asymmetric balance, Proko's images also exhibit many vertical straight lines which emphasize the height of the buildings he captures. The vertical and horizontal straight lines viewed in his work are due mostly to the architectural design of the buildings. These lines create many instances of geometric patterns and shapes, such as squares and rectangles. These elements reminded me of the cityscapes surrounding me in Milwaukee. Some of Prokos's pieces also involve reflections of buildings as seen from other structures. This interested me, as these images still include straight lines, but also additionally distorted and organic lines and color.
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The idea of reflection also symbolizes a meaning surrounding the identity of what is being reflected. This aspect, along with the inclusion of lines and balance is one I want to illustrate in my work.
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Planning |
As an initial part of my planning, I observed elements which were repeated in Prokos's work. This included vertical and horizontal straight lines which are made from buildings. I planned to capture these types of lines in my work as well. I also began thinking about where I could find these elements. |
Being from Milwaukee, many clusters of buildings can be found which are similar to Prokos's images. One building I thought to include was the US Bank, which contains many lines and geometric shapes due to the design of the windows.
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My planning consisted mostly of determining which aspects of design inspired from Prokos's work would be explored in my own. His cityscape photos also commonly illustrate a skyline which occupies around one third of the top of the image. I decided I wanted to capture some images with this skyline involved as well. When observing Prokos's work which depicts reflections of buildings, I became interested in the meanings which could be behind them. Since Milwaukee is given the name "Cream City" due to the amount of its historical cream colored buildings occupying the city, an image reflecting these buildings may also symbolize a reflection of identity. This also sparked an interest in capturing images involving reflections of buildings similar to those in Prokos's work.
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Process |
The process also then included determining whether the photos I captured achieved illustrating vertical and horizontal straight lines and the cream color found in the buildings representing Milwaukee's identity. Initially, the first picture (above left) interested me due to the squares that could be seen in the US bank seen in the left, however after observing Prokos's work, I wanted my work to be more similar to his with many clustered buildings. The photo on the right interested me as it had clustered buildings and many instances of the cream colored bricks. However, the angle of the photo does not allow for the tall vertical presentation of the buildings with the straight lines as seen in Prokos's images.
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I then found another place where I captured images of some of the older Milwaukee buildings. The warm cream colors seen in the buildings interested me as well as the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines scattered throughout the images from this location. However, I also wanted to capture some images involving reflections. |
Although these images were more blue in color due to the reflection of the sky, the cream colored buildings are in the reflection. The straight vertical and horizontal lines created from the building also created a similar composition to some of Prokos's images.
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Experimentation |
In the image on the left, the picture was taken when the sun was higher in the sky. This resulted in more shadows in the photo, creating a greater contrast from light and dark. This also emphasized the vibrancy of the cream colored buildings to a higher extent than some of the pictures taken at different times. While these images are all taken at the same location and display the same buildings, the size of the image also changes the way the entire image appears. In the photo second from the left, the buildings with cooler colors are not included, giving the whole image a more overall warm tone.
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I decided the photos resembled those of Prokos more when only the reflection was visible. After adjusting the photos, the skyline may also still be seen with the images only containing the reflection. I also experimented with the tones of the images. While the images with the reflections contained the cream color in the reflection, I edited the photos to be more yellow or warm color tinted.
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Critique |
Similarities:
Both my work and Andrew Prokos's images capture the architectural designs viewed within a city. Our photos feature cityscapes and reflections of buildings off of other structures. The buildings seen in our piece include city towers and skyscrapers. In both of our works, straight vertical lines resulting from the buildings constitute the images. There is also a strong use of horizontal straight lines throughout the images as well. These lines perpendicularly intersect one another to create geometric shapes such as squares and rectangles. In both mine and Prokos's work, the vertical lines extend the height of the buildings they occupy, emphasizing their height. The use of color is similar between my work and those of Prokos's photos that are in color. The reflection of Milwaukee buildings in my piece are warm in color and depict the historic cream color of the bricks used to build them. This warm presence is similarly seen in Prokos's work with the buildings which are made from warm colored bricks. Differences: While both Prokos's images and my work exhibit vertical and horizontal lines, my works also includes some diagonal straight lines. This is seen in the structure of the buildings reflecting the towers in my photo. However, the depiction of diagonal lines is not a pattern in Prokos's work. While Prokos's work displays symmetry, my work is asymmetrical. With Prokos's reflection image, reflections of two towers occupy either side of the piece. This enables a vertical line of symmetry to divide the piece in half. In his skyline image, clusters of buildings occupy the bottom half of the image while the sky occupies the top half, enabling a horizontal line of symmetry to divide the piece. However, my work is not symmetrical, as a taller buildings occupies the right side of the piece and a smaller building occupies the left. In addition, the skyline in my piece is not balanced with the cluster of buildings. In much of Prokos's work, there is balance amongst the buildings or balance between the buildings and the sky. But, in my work, the majority of space is consumed by buildings or reflections of buildings with less space designated to the sky. |
Reflection |
With architectural photographer Andrew Prokos as inspiration, I captured an image illustrating the reflections of buildings in the city. While initially difficult to discover a location which could allow me to photograph a reflection off of buildings, I was able to explore specific areas in the city which allowed me to take images with reflections. Inspired by Prokos's use of line, I also included photos of buildings which exhibited similar line design within their architecture. Similar to Prokos's work, the vertical lines displayed in my work emphasize the height of the buildings they occupy. This photography work was different from anything I have done in the past. One major difference I explored between photography and other art mediums is the application of certain elements. My work specifically applied the use of line to emphasize the heights of buildings, however this line is not an element I applied myself. In order to apply line in this work, I found instances of it in the city, whereas in other projects, I applied the lines myself. This enabled me to explore how elements of art such as line, balance, and symmetry appear in the environment surrounding me.
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ACT Questions |
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Andrew Prokos incorporates vertical and horizontal straight lines into his work with his images of building reflections. My work also contains these elements as I incorporate similar types of lines and composition. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration? Andrew Prokos is a professional photographer capturing images mostly from New York, but also from places around the world. His ability to capture captivating images from these places allows him to share them with other people. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration? Many people look past city scenes once they have become an everyday part of their life. Oftentimes, cityscapes are overlooked because they are viewed as common. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?. My research revolves around the idea of capturing an image of a cityscape which explores the identity of the city. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research? I inferred that when photographers choose specific buildings to take photos of, there is a significance for why the specific buildings are chosen. |
Citations |
“Andrew Prokos.” ASMP, 28 July 2022, https://www.asmp.org/portfolio/andrew-prokos/.
“New York Photography Gallery - Fine Art Photographs by Andrew Prokos.” Gallery - Fine Art Photographs by Andrew Prokos, https://andrewprokos.com/photos/new-york/. |