1. Photographer Arnold Newman would often
employ backgrounds in his portraits which helped
tell the story about the subject.
Newman said that he didn’t like the “cold studio
portrait” but instead wanted to show his subjects
in their surroundings.
Quoted from the Palm Beach Post, 2006

2. Ana Mendieta, from the series
Silueta, 1976
The silueta (silhouette) was a series of artwoks made by Ana Mendieta in which she
left an ‘imprint’ of her body in snow, mud, sand, grass etc. These were transient
ephemeral artworks, at their creation a performance piece, then recorded
photographically.

3. Artist Richard Long is known for his Land-Art,
often photographing tracks made by repeated
use, or arranging natural materials within the
landscape and then photographing them (see
also the artist Andy Goldsworthy).

4. The landscape photography
of Michael Kenna is clearly
produced ‘outside’ in the
countryside, yet his
minimalist style is perhaps
more reminiscent of
dreamlike or half
remembered landscapes.
In a sense then, these
landscapes could be about
the human experience of
encountering a landscape,
the subconscious – our
hidden mental interior.

5. How would it feel like to be an
immigrant – a foreigner in a
strange land – an ‘outsider’?
In this famous photograph
Alfred Stieglitz records
immigrants arriving travelling
to America on board the
Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1907,
escaping the poverty and
oncoming turbulence which
would escalate into a world
war.
Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907

6. The work of Hungarian Andre Kertesz
demonstrates sublime compositional
skills, with shapes within shapes (shapes
spaces, shadows & tone inside shapes &
spaces).

7. Shoot through a transparent or
semi-transparent surface such as
glass with condensation or rain
drops, or even a shower curtain
as in the film Psycho.
The surface is between the
distant subject and the camera.
Images like this can obscure or
hide the subject behind the
surface, creating a mysterious,
dreamlike or scary effect.
Scene from Psycho, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

8. Naoya Hatakeyama

9. Slow Shutter Speeds
can be used to create an
impression of ‘aloneness’ or
alienation*
* Alienation is to be or feel ‘outside’
of society, lonely, alone, apart.

10. Shadows
Shadows and
silhouettes can be
used to ‘hide’ or
‘keep outside’
information about
the subject of an
image.

11. Silhouettes

12. Reflections
Reflections can
distort reality,
they can also
act as an ‘in
between’ the
subject and
the image.

13. Use Filters
Filters placed between the camera lens and
the subject can radically enhance or alter
the visual appearance or feel/mood of an
image.
Similarly a gel filter between light source
and subject will alter the colour of the light.

14. The theme ‘Inside, Outside, In Between’ can be interpreted in many
different ways.
Here are just a few thoughts and ideas to help inspire you:
• Outside - forests, the beach, the countryside, moors, mountain passes, highways, tracks, arches,
urban landscape, architectural exteriors, the universe – stars & galaxies, aliens,
• Outside – alienation, loneliness, exclusion, foreigners (outsiders),
• Outside – skin, clothing, raincoats, hats, boots, shoes
• Bringing the outside ‘in’ – binoculars, telescopes, microscopes, looking out through a window or
doorway, greenhouses, tubing, pipes
• Bringing the inside ‘out’ - looking in through a window or doorway, X rays, ducts, conduits
• Inside - tunnels, underpasses, subways, arches, Diving, swimming under-water, birth
• Inside - cupboards, wardrobes, drawers, boxes
• Inside – emotions, fears, dreams, imagination, love
• Inside – operations, piercings, tatoos, drugs, syringes
• In between - asexuality, apathy, inaction, puberty, pregnancy, birth
• In between – thresholds, edges, cliff edges, holes, caves, tunnels, underpasses, pedestrian crossings,
bridges, mediation
• In between – filters, gels, post production Photoshop effects, windows, masks