Above are the contact sheets from my first angry feminist shoot. In this shoot I took inspiration from the topless protests by the radical feminist group, Femen. I did some dramatic makeup, back combed my hair and painted the words “My body, my choice over my chest and torso. I experimented with using both pink and blue backgrounds, I made the decision to use the images with the blue background because of the masculine connotations of blue and to protest in such a way is not considered particularly lady-like.

I experimented with using the jacket but I felt that did not work with the “shocking” sense of “nudity” (I made the decision to wear a bikini top as an authentic recreation of the Femen protests may not be appropriate for a school project) I also experimented with various poses including fight or flight like stances and the typical fisted hand above the head. I most of the images I included an angry screaming or shouting expression as this is seen in most of the press photos from Femen demonstrations and protests.

I selected these images as my shortlist because I felt that the battle stance captured the sense of desperation and not too over the top warrior feel. I edited these photos by cropping them to frame the figure around the tops of the thighs. I also increased the brightness and contrast, adjusted the levels and slightly smoothed out the backdrop as their were still some creases that I could not fix with iron without melting the vinyl.