I took inspiration from David Hockney’s composition piece Robert Littman Floating in My Pool, Oct. 1982. The composition was made by layering different photos of sections of the body in different positions to give the impression of movement. I picked this photograph because I felt that it would work well for trying to do something experiment with this style of collage. I printed off several copies of the same photograph and stuck one whole photo down. I then cut up different sections of the body from the remaining photographs and placed them in slightly different positions over the original photograph. I feel like this piece was really successful, I think that I have captured the style of movement really well as it looks almost like freeze frames from different positions in the air as he gets closer to the water. The style is very simplistic and not too overwhelming which makes the composition flow nicely. I also personally feel when I look at it that after seeing the layered sections of the figure my eyes automatically move to the right of the image as if expecting to see the impact of him hitting the water and the big splash that comes with it.

You lose the beautiful shades of blue and the details of the water rippling in this version of the composition. The black and white print seems to sharpen the image compared to the coloured piece which is smooth and quite calm looking. I definitely prefer the coloured version as I feel like you connect more to the piece because of the colours it gives you more of a feel to the location and the warmth of the summer and the pool to cool down in and have fun playing in.

I felt as though the piece with the photograph and the cut out shapes was quite successful and so I decided to try it again on this photograph so that I could compare the three different styles done on the same photograph. I feel as though this composition kind of works however it looks to me as if something is missing. I think that maybe it is the way that I have cut shapes into it that ruin the balance of the photograph. The more I look at it the more I realise I don’t like it because I think it is too simplistic.

Personally I feel as though the black and white actually makes this composition better. I think the contrast between the white cut out shapes and monochrome photograph works really well and helps to balance the composition more than it is in the coloured piece. This is quite surprising because the black and white version of the last composition didn’t work very well which I think shows that it is not just about the colour the photograph is but it is about the technique applied to the image.

I decided to combine the two styles together to see how they worked and if it worked better as a composition with the two combined, this way I could compare the three to see which worked best. Combining the two styles I personally think improves it from the last piece massively, it gives the composition more balance and it gives it more to focus on rather than just some simplistic cut-out shapes. However whilst I think it is an improvement to the second one I feel that compared to the first one this is the least successful and I prefer the structure of the first piece.

This monochrome version of the composition I felt was not very successful. There is not enough contrast between the cut out shapes and the tone of the water. The layering of figure also doesn’t stand out as much in black and white so you don’t get the full effect. I think that the original coloured version works much better than this as you can fully appreciate the techniques of collage and paper cutting combined.

I decided to try and make this technique even more like David Hockney’s actual piece ‘Robert Littman…’ so I decided to photocopy the first style I tried and I cut out the figure and then a couple of random sections from the background of the photograph. I removed the majority of the background leaving lots of ‘blanc’ space and placed the two sections of the background further to the right in different positions to make the viewer of the piece almost fill in the gaps with the rest of the image so what they see is completely different for each person as it is completely open except for the figure, a section of the pool and a section of the sky. Whilst I like the theory behind the piece and I think when applied it works well I don’t actually think the composition is successful. I don’t think that the piece has the right balance so it doesn’t feel right when you look at it. I much prefer the original composition with the layering of the figure over the original background I think it has the right balance and works well compared to this piece.