Morris-Cafiero’s recent project called ‘Wait Watchers’ includes many public reactions. Since she’d always been a bigger woman she was prone to bullying and many people would look at her strangely. Instead of ignoring them, she was interested by this concept and began to take self-portraits of herself in the middle of busy places. Morris-Cafiero’s aim was to capture strangers looking at her and see their facial expressions. Her interest for stranger’s reactions towards her body image began with one photograph. She was sitting on some stairs in Time’s Square and a man behind her was pulling a face at her. Since she saw that image she’s become fascinated and takes many public photographs. She stated: “When I got the film back  even though we were in the visual overload capital of the world he was looking at me. I had nothing to do with him, and to capture something so quickly is interesting, so I’ve been doing that ever since.”

Here’s Morris-Cafiero’s original shot:

She describes her project in the following quote:

“I now reverse the gaze and record their reactions to me while I perform mundane tasks in public spaces. I seek out spaces that are visually interesting and geographically diverse. I try to place myself in compositions that contain feminine icons or advertisements. Otherwise, I position myself and the camera in a pool of people…and wait.”

I found it quite astounding how every single person in the family seems to be staring at her at that moment in time. It’s uncertain whether what their looking at or why they are. It could be due to interest, repulsion or they could simply be reacting to something else. To me, it’s very interesting to record their facial expressions as it says a little bit about them.

Morris-Cafiero put’s her camera on a tripod and set a self-timer of about 5 seconds. She then places herself in position doing ordinary things. The girl behind her appears to be staring at her upper leg. She seems appaled due to her parted upturned lips and her slightly closed eyes. However, this could be due to the fact that she saw the camera and did that as a result.

This image of hers was taken on a very busy area. Morris-Cafiero’s workout gear suits her surroundings of worked-up gym men. In our society, especially in the media it’s seen as shameful to be large. Therefore, the photographer probably isn’t as accepted by others as she should be. It’s intriguing to notice that all of the are looking at the woman at the same time. They could be thinking various things and be enticed by overcoming interest as she seems to be performing some sort of physical activity. Currently Morris-Cafiero is completely comfortable with her appearance instead she comments: “the idea that a glance and gaze is able to be captured is just really thrilling and interesting to me”.

In this image the photographer seems to have a frustrated expression as she pretends to talk on the phone. Oppositely the two policemen are looking as one of them is about to place his hat on her. It’s unclear whether they are being rude and taking advantage or if they are just playing an innocent joke. Nevertheless, it’s rather fascinating to contemplate on it.

For this specific shot, Morris-Cafiero is kneeling over to pick up something in a very crowded environment. Pedestrians look on as she evolves into a quite awkward and venerable position. Personally, I believe that this is a very good experiment to try out and would like to experiment with it.

She goes on to add:

“The images capture the gazer in a microsecond moment where they, for unknowable reasons, have a look on their face that questions my presence. Whether they are questioning my position in front of the lens or questioning my body size, the gazer appears to be visually troubled that I am in front of them.”

This photograph is another from a beach setting. A young and fit couple seem be casually strolling along. The young woman’s laughter comes across as making fun and she is obviously looking at the woman, Alternatively, she could’ve been smiling at something the boy said. However since people are becoming more and more obsessed with being ‘perfect’ according to the media’s standard’s, women may be becoming harsher to each other and judge solely on appearance.

The Media – Quick Overview

Whether it’s on the internet, magazines, newspapers, television, movies or photographs, the media is full of thin women with slim bodies and perfect curves. New technology allows for every single part of their bodies to be airbrushed even going as far as including people’s knees and armpits. For instance:

Models are a crucial part in influencing millions of people. They said on the ‘Mirror’ website (http://www.mirror-mirror.org/perfect-body-image.htm) :

“The modeling industry is an important aspect affecting the female’s body image. One popular issue is the promotion of the perfect and skinny body. Modeling industries strive to only have the most attractive and skinny model.”

The ideal body image has constantly changed overtime and is know very different. Apparently to be ‘healthy’ you mustn’t have excessive fat on you as that is seen as ‘shameful’.

Over the years ‘body modification’ was present and still is today. For example in prehistoric tribes which included pursuits to: flatten their skulls, elongate their necks and stretch their earlobes:

Women’s ‘ideal’ body over the years:

• 1880’s – wide hips/ medium small waist/ large breasts:

• 1900’s – with new technology and media spreading worldwide, people’s views changed:

• 1960’s – thin supermodels like ‘Twiggy’ popularized the ‘thin’ look.

• 2000’s – body image became more dramatized and people desired fitter and better figures.

 

• 2013 – now women are: concerned with their bodies and if they’re attractive to men and are viewed as objects for sexual gratification. Plastic surgery is more common and viewed as the ‘norm’.

In this post i’m going to research some ‘Reaction’ photographers and also some cool concepts linked this theme. I’ll then refer back to this and apply it to my own work:

‘REACTION’ PHOTOGRAPHERS

Patrick hall:

Hall does the opposite of trying to make his subjects feel ‘comfortable’. Instead, in this piece of work he extracts reactions by using Stun Guns on people and called it ‘The Stun Gun Photoshoot’. Hall got the subjects friends to taser them personally, which created a wide range of emotions from both parties. For instance the friends tasering were probably excited whilst the subjects were afraid. In total he managed to photograph 100 people in one day. Everyone had to sit on a high-chair so that they would stay in place and not move too far away from the frame of the camera.

Hall created a video of his shoot which shows all the reactions taking place:

“What I found most interesting about the reactions people showed while getting tazed was you never knew how they would react.  Some people screamed while others were quiet.  A few people looked like they were experiencing pleasure while others had the most painful faces I’ve ever seen.  I saw jumpers and fallers.  People laughed and people cursed.  I even had about four guys and girls who did not react at all and seemed to be completely unphased by the 300,000 volts of electricity.” – Patrick Hall.

Hall wanted to get something ‘real’. He stated that normally when he had people get their picture taken they’d act different and pose. Therefore, I think that this ‘tasering’ concept caught them off-guard and captured their raw emotions and feelings, since it’s quite hard to hide them when being stung with that amount of volts.

Personally this photograph is quite interesting to me. The subject is wearing red sunglasses which add personality. He’s also got a surfer necklace which identifies his style. His facial expression is quite exuberant although he’s getting tasered. His lip lines and wrinkled skin are deepened due to hid bold reaction. Accordingly, his neck has tensed-up and his teeth are clenched. This may signify stress, anger, pain, etc.

Composition wise, Hall’s photograph includes a clean grey background which contrasts against the people’s bare skin. The back light shines on the people’s backs which gives a shine and as Hall says makes the subjects stand out from the background. Hall wanted the subjects to be bare on-top so that the the focus would’t deviate anywhere else.

More ‘Stun Gun Shoot’ photographs:

                                

“You never knew how they would react,” said Hall. “Some people screamed while others were quiet. A few people looked like they were experiencing pleasure while others had the most painful faces I’ve ever seen. I saw jumpers and fallers. People laughed and people cursed. I even had about four guys and girls who did not react at all.”

Craig Silverman:

Silverman has cleverly shot some of people’s most frightening reactions. The photographs are taken at Niagra Fall’s scariest fear attraction called ‘Nightmares Fear Factory’.

Link to their webpage: http://www.nightmaresfearfactory.com

Examples include:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/amazing-photos-of-people-getting-scared-shitless#.xmp9lgpRA

The people’s reactions are so extreme and exaggerated with shows their true emotional feeling towards what they’ve seen.

Adrain Chesser:

His piece of work is called ‘I have something to tell you’. Here are some examples:

Adrain Chesser succeeded in interestingly capturing some portraits of his family. These  vibrant portraits show the reactions that Chesser caught. Prior to have taken these shots, he told his family members a very shocking message. He revealed to them that he had ‘AIDS’.

“It occurred to me that if I ritualized the act of telling, that it might be possible to transform these childhood fears that were still effecting me as an adult.” – Adrain Chesser

The reactions vary extremely, some are seen frowning in disbelief whilst others are consistent in masking their emotions with a smiles.I think that the concept is great, and although he survived a modest way of causing an outburst of emotions.

Personal Website: http://www.adrainchesser.com/

Shea Glover:

Another cool manner of getting a reaction is through the medium of verbal utterances. For example the student photographer Shea Glover walked around her city telling people a positive phrase, which also doubled as a social experiment.

Basically she’d record random people whilst taking the shots as this shows the before, during and after process taking place. When the people asked her what she wanted to take pictures of, she replied with something along the lines of: “what I thought was beautiful”.

Her prime aim was to capture the way in which the people’s demeanor’s changed as she told them that phrase. In result, everyone either immersed into a little smile or a big one, but either way they had a positive response.

“I conducted an independent project, which evidently turned into a social experiment regarding beauty.” – Shea Glover

Examples of her work from a website: https://fstoppers.com/documentary/photographer-captures-peoples-reactions-when-told-they-are-beautiful-102444

Wan Chai:

Source: http://hongkong.coconuts.co/2015/04/16/look-me-wan-chai-reactions-your-face-photography

I really like Wan Chai’s work because he captures very real reactions. He practices street photography in this specific project called “Look at me!” and goes around the street catching people unexpectedly, which adds an essence of spontaneity.

Examples of his work:

Similarly, Chai is also conducting a social experiment and using his camera to record it. Most of the reactions were defensive and the subjects tried to hide their faces or stared in a confrontational manner. Overall a certain friction and connection is created between the photographer and the subject.

My favorite photograph is the one of the citizens in the car which was called “The Boss and His Buddies”. It’s interesting to see their faces when being photographed. Since they are in the comfort of their own car and probably accustomed to looking out into the exciting city, I’m, sure they weren’t expecting to see a camera pointing at them.

He sums it up himself in this statement:

“It was a really fun experience. I didn’t say one word throughout the shoot, yet I was saying ‘look at me’ in my mind the whole time, hoping people would notice me so I could capture their reactions. “It was very interesting how different people reacted, and I could never predict the responses I got. It was also really exciting as some people exhibited really extreme reactions. I even got pushed and my camera almost broke at one point.” – Wan Chai

 

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CONCEPTS

‘If Only for a Second’ Campaign:

I found a very interesting website which contained simple but extraordinary reactions of people, after seeing their carefree makeovers – http://www.mimi-foundation.org/en/. This project was created by a French Foundation called ‘Mimi Ullens’ that deals with Cancer patients. Exactly 20 patients were featured with their ‘outlandish makeovers’.

The foundation added that they got inspiration from a fellow patient that described her life before and after finding out that she had Cancer. She said: “You know what I miss the most? Being carefree.

They all showed a great variety of emotion:

This series is quite uplifting in my opinion; I say this because it has a very warm meaning behind it. The foundation aims to show patients that life is all about enjoyment and having fun.

Whilst getting their makeover the patients were placed in front of two-way mirror and told to keep their eyes shut, then when the makeover was over they’d be instructed to look. The Mimi Ullens photographer called Vincent Dixon, would be behind the glass and ready to snap the shot.

‘If Only for a Second’ or ‘Ne Serait-ce Qu’une Seconde’ – Vincent Dixon takes the shot precisely 1 second after the patients open their eyes. I believe that for that split-second the people feel something and completely forget their illness, so this project is very effective.

More examples:

“Within a second, smiling faces were seen all over the room. At that very moment, the cancer did not exist for the family members either.” – Mimi-Ullens Press Release.

‘The Make out Project’

Photographer Jedediah Johnson ‘made-out’ with people using bright lipstick and then recorded his results.

“The result is a portrait not only of the subject but of me and the moment as well” – he said.

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