Not an Error at All

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Editorial ERROR is part of a greater work named BCD – BEAUTIFUL COMMUNICATION DESIGN which I created for my bachelor thesis in 2015. It illustrates different fields of communication design connecting them to fashion photography.

View more information on BCD

The Story behind editorial ERROR

The Internet is a collection of information, that theoretically can be reviewed and influenced by every human being. In the age of Facebook and Twitter, almost everyone leaves a digital trace of his existence.

The internet archives every portrayal of the real world, no matter if it’s impartial or sentimental. It dissolves them into a digital web that is spun densely enough to seem like a single grey area and making it hard to be conceived.

Submitting information to the internet is relatively easy. It happens actively and passively. However, receiving correct information is a difficult task to undertake. Most commonly, your favorite sites feed you with „random“ data, or you try finding something by browsing through the archive “internet” and will get a whole lot of pieces in the puzzle which you automatically connect to a total picture. But you rarely know the quality of every single piece, neither if it really belongs to the subject. Even the overview of google results can already be an overload of contents influencing you. You produce your own image which is corrupted and distorted.

Therefore a web designer needs to rise to the challenge of handing off outright information to the users without creating a parasitic image, or however, using the effect of diversion whatsoever.

From the very beginning […] when in the dark rooms developers were fastidiously blended to achieve specific effects (on photos), people (photographers) were manipulating (images). In fact every photograph is a counterfeit from A to Z. A completely realistic and not manipulated photo is not possible in practice.  –  Edward Steichen

Female fashion editorial with model Siri Meßmer by Heidi Rondak for Teaser Magazine

Editorial ERROR was taken on two different analogue medium format films. Rollei ATP 1.1 is a so-called documents film that produces extreme contrasts inside the camera in the first place. Ilford Pan F Plus is a low-sensitive film with high sharpness. Two different portrayals were created from one and the same reality. Also, the documents film recalls the idea of binary systems, as for the screening of black and white pixels. The process of transferring it from real to virtual happened during scanning the negatives and further post-production.

Female fashion editorial with model Siri Meßmer by Heidi Rondak for Teaser Magazine

To illustrate how faulty information gets spread randomly on the internet, ERROR works with a GLITCH ART technique whereby image files are getting damaged by an audio programme using effects like e.g. echo. The resulting parasitic images were used as stylistic elements layered over other images or serving as masks on the contained red, green, and blue layers in all coloured pictures.

Audio-glitched image from fashion editorial Error by Heidi Rondak

The styling spells out how bizarre the exploitation of the internet has become. The model is wearing provocative lingerie combined with manly fashion. The question arises about her real identity, but also the nature of the world wide web is (on purpose) grossly characterised into PORNO and BUSINESS.

Glitch art fashion editorial with model Siri Meßmer by Heidi Rondak for Teaser Magazine

Epilogue

If you enjoyed reading this article, or you found it helpful in one way or the other, I would love to know (reach out)! You are also welcome to support my work and writing by donating whichever amount this is worth to you. I will thank you with lots of telepathic love and more interesting journal entries. Cheers!


 

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