Landscapes on the Cusp of the Real & the Fantastic
Photography by Rehan Zia, exploring the meaning of digital photography in the context of multi-shot and contemporary digital techniques. The exhibition will be running from 19 August - 20 December 2019 and open to all in the Lees Gallery, Poole House, Talbot Campus.
This photographic exhibition forms part of the artist’s PhD thesis assessment display and has been created using multiple exposures; high dynamic range photography using different exposures which has allowed for a greater range of scene tones to be captured.
Using the following techniques has enabled the artist to create beautiful real time landscape images that have a sense of the fantasy about them.
Focus Stacking: allows for all scene elements from the foreground to the background to render in focus.
Digital Panorama Stitching: allows for capturing a larger part of the scene with minimal distortion and in higher resolution as opposed to a single wide-angle shot.
Multi-shot: nature of these techniques can create issues of ghosting where scene elements do not line up across the different exposures given the movement in the scene.
Hybrid workflow: developed by the artist allows for the capture of greater scene detail, and, greater flexibility to craft the look of the image in line with the look conceived in the mind’s eye whilst minimising ghosting and other lens and camera artifacts.
Whilst these are photographs of real world environments, the scene details and the look can only be revealed through the camera and cannot be experienced by the naked eye. The tones, colour, exposure and contrast have been enhanced to create a look that lies on the cusp of realism and fantasy and blurs the line between landscape photography and painting. In doing so, the practice explores the meaning of the digital photograph itself in the context of multi-shot photography and contemporary digital photography techniques.
Rehan Zia is lecturer in Computer Animation and Visual Effects at the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA), Bournemouth University. Growing up with the impressions of the British landscape based on the tales of Robin Hood and King Arthur, and, the paintings of Constable and Turner, Rehan still visualises the British landscape based on his childhood memories and extends it to other locations as well. These fantasy environments contain a sense of escapism, fantasy and romance – a world of peace far from the harsh realities of the real world but just as real.
Showcasing the work of our volunteers to reinvigorate the polytunnel on campus and create historical plant beds around the Christchurch House courtyard.
A photography exhibition on nature and examining the concept of diagnosis, by BU Master's student Sarah Clark. Open in the Atrium Gallery in Poole House from Monday 4 March.
Find out what studying a BU taught or research degree is really like at this Virtual Open Day. Join us 14:00-17:00 (UK time) and get your questions answered.