Good Afternoon Matt. I am currently teaching yr9 Photography and we are working on a body of work inspired by your repeat patterns. Would you be able to give us a little insight to your inspiration and working methods in order to support our research pages. Thank you in advance for your time. We look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Mrs Chapman
Thank you for your question and interest in my work.
When creating the images, I start with an original square-cropped image with asymmetric composition, has good contrast range, as well as unusual or compelling textures and shapes. Nature and architectural subjects work well for me, but they could be anything.
I keep the original image open in Photoshop. Then I create a new .PSD file with four times the pixel area as the original image, and add four new layers on top of the background layer of the new file.
Go back to the original image, select all and copy it to clipboard. Switch to the .PSD, select the first layer, paste into the layer, and move it into a corner. Return to the original image. From the Image menu, select Image Rotation, and choose any of the rotation options to rotate or flip. Then select all, copy, and paste into the second layer of the .PSD file, into another corner. Repeat for the remaining layers. Once the composition is set, I make some adjustments to overall brightness, contrast, shadow or highlight detail.
As you can see, there are many possible orientations with this method. I don’t adhere to a specific formula for the flips/rotations, I just keep at it until I find a composition that speaks to me. I think it is a fun way to tap into your subconscious, and let the abstracted shapes become something more than the sum of their parts.
Matt Ball Photography 
Good Afternoon Matt. I am currently teaching yr9 Photography and we are working on a body of work inspired by your repeat patterns. Would you be able to give us a little insight to your inspiration and working methods in order to support our research pages. Thank you in advance for your time. We look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Mrs Chapman
Dear Mrs. Chapman,
Thank you for your question and interest in my work.
When creating the images, I start with an original square-cropped image with asymmetric composition, has good contrast range, as well as unusual or compelling textures and shapes. Nature and architectural subjects work well for me, but they could be anything.
I keep the original image open in Photoshop. Then I create a new .PSD file with four times the pixel area as the original image, and add four new layers on top of the background layer of the new file.
Go back to the original image, select all and copy it to clipboard. Switch to the .PSD, select the first layer, paste into the layer, and move it into a corner. Return to the original image. From the Image menu, select Image Rotation, and choose any of the rotation options to rotate or flip. Then select all, copy, and paste into the second layer of the .PSD file, into another corner. Repeat for the remaining layers. Once the composition is set, I make some adjustments to overall brightness, contrast, shadow or highlight detail.
As you can see, there are many possible orientations with this method. I don’t adhere to a specific formula for the flips/rotations, I just keep at it until I find a composition that speaks to me. I think it is a fun way to tap into your subconscious, and let the abstracted shapes become something more than the sum of their parts.
Hope this helps with the class project. Have fun!
Best,
Matt Ball