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Inspiration, Planning

Blonde – Planning

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As I am exploring different stereotypes within western society that I conform to or have conformed to in the past, I thought it appropriate   to explore the well known “dumb blonde” stereotypes. Above is a mood board that I compiled, including images of fictional sassy and strong blonde characters, Regina George and Elle Woods as well as blonde celebrities, Pop singer, Christina Aguilera and reality tv pioneer, Paris Hilton. Regina George is the perfect example of the 00’s it-girl, she is the queen of her high school and is both loved and envied by her peers. Regina is also presented as bitchy, mean and unloyalw, however by the end of the film, Regina as well as the other female protagonist mature and are able to make peace and unite as women. Elle woods, in my opinion is a excellent on screen and on stage role model for women everywhere. In the film “Legally Blonde” which she stars in she is initially presented as a typically dumb blonde airhead. Her character develops throughout the film where she decides to become a lawyer, breaking stereotypes, empowering women and staying true to herself. Christina Aguilera is a famous pop star who has been celebrated for her unique voice and impressive pitch range. Aguilera has experienced bad press in the past due to the media being focused on her outward appearance (her makeup, hair and weight) instead of focusing on her amazing ability to be incredibly singer, dancer and actress. Paris Hilton is great granddaughter to Conrad Hilton, the founder of the chain of luxury Hilton hotels. She is stereotypes as a dumb, superficial, blonde trust fund kid who parties, sleeps around ad spends her families’ money. However she mist be commended for her entrepreneurial skills to star in several reality TV shows, create a line of clothing and be a public figure as well as a household name.

Above is the confirmation for a lace front wig that I ordered from amazon in order to create my blonde character. As I no longer have blonde hair I had to find a good quality wig that would allow me to create a realistic and polished appearance of blonde hair. As previously stated in my initial mood boards I made the decision to dye my previously bleached blonde hair back to my natural light brown colour. I made this decision for two main reasons, the first being that I wanted my hair to remain long and healthy and be done with the constant upkeep of root and the second that I had a number of bad experiences being a young blonde woman. I experienced cat calling much more frequently than when I had pink or brown hair, the most popular being “Hey, Blondie”. I also experienced multiple scenarios on the one time I went clubbing with blonde hair, two different men in different clubs thought that they had the right to touch me without asking or even talking to me.  I hate that men associate blonde hair with someone who is “easy” because I believe this is why those men thought that they could do whatever they wanted. I have experienced much less catcalling since being a brunette again, only two instances in two months and I have had no bad experiences out clubbing either which reinforces my reasons to believe that it was my hair colour that was sending the wrong message. As a feminist I want to live in a world where women should be able to have whatever hair colour they want without being judged, but unfortunately that is not the world we live in and my safety comes first.

 

Above are the outfits that I plan to wear for the blonde stereotype photo shoots. I want to create two images that display the character in different way. In one image I plan to wear sunglasses and a pink v-neck dress, inspired by the LA valley girl look that paris hilton is so well known for. In the second image I plan to wear a Mariah Carey style christmas dress, inspired by the iconic cinematic Jingle Bell Rock scene in “Mean Girls”. I also plan to use the above blue backdrop as I feel that using a pink one may look strange with a dress of a similar shade as well as clash with the red of the christmas dress.

 

 

Planning, Research

Documentary: Beach & Ocean Pollution – planning

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My next topic of documenting our islands pollution will be focusing on our beautiful, yet tainted beaches and seas. With 45 miles of coastline, Jersey beaches are considered to be some of the best and most varied throughout the British Isles. However, we are no exception to the growing worldwide issue of beach pollution produced by the gross amount of waste dumped into the ocean each year. These next few shoots documenting this problem will be a straight photography style approach to expressing and representing our islands beach pollution.

Beach pollution is a persistent problem, in 1995 alone nearly 4000 beach closings and advisories were issued by the state and local governments. The litter that is swamping our oceans and washing up on beaches kills wildlife, looks disgusting and is a hazard to our health. It is estimated that there are nearly 2,500 items of rubbish for every kilometre of a beach. These items mostly consist of plastic waste which has increased in amount 140% since 1994. This is especially hazardous since plastic will never biodegrade and will eventually break down into tiny microplastic particles investing the water. The main types of beach pollution include wet weather discharges, the public, discarded fishing equipment, and sewage runoffs. The biggest source of pollution in the ocean (and therefore on beaches) however, is directly from land-based sources, such as oil, dirt, septic tanks, farms, ranches and motor vehicles. Even though much of the trash and waste dumped into the ocean is released hundreds of miles away from land, it still washes up on beaches and coastal areas and affects everything in between. Every marine animal is affected by man-made chemicals released into the water. — Below are some examples of my previously taken photographs showing beach pollution, and below that is a contact sheet of the kind of images I am hoping to create in my first section….

Although I do like a few of my images shown in this small collection above, I do not feel they show beach pollution ‘on a whole’ as well as they could. This shoot was not planned and was simply aimed to experiment with what kinds of objects I can expect to find, and how to get across my message by photographing them. The results have taught me that in order to show the scale of common beach pollution I must come at this from a different angle. Since then I have been inspired to complete my own beach clean-ups, showing what I find, collected together in one powerful photograph. When looking at ocean pollution I will visite one of these same beaches a few weeks later, using the trash accumulated there to create interesting underwater photographs.

Although the fact I am tampering with the subjects, compromises this next shoot as a part of documentary photography, the truth of how much pollution is on just one beach will be evidently clear. To complete this first beach pollution section I will begin by simply visiting some of Jersey’s popular beaches to determine wich will be the best to get across my message. Although I am unsure of which beaches will be featured, I plan to look at smaller beaches to emphasise how such a confined area can demonstrate so much pollution. All I will need to do this shoot is my camera, some trash bags, gloves and natural light from the sun. It will be interesting to see how much of this waste I can find to support my point of this being a massive and overlooked pollution issue. For the ocean pollution section, I will be trying to create meaningful photographs of rubbish found in our beautiful seas from an underwater perspective.  This will hopefully emphasise the issue of beach pollution and how it affects marine life and the environment. To do this I will simply be using real props found on location and my iPhone with and underwater phone case. Below is a contact sheet of the kind of images I am hoping to create for the first section of these shoots (minus the people). For the underwater photography, looking at ocean pollution, I will be exploring my inspirations with a couple of artist researches before I complete the shoot. 

Planning

2nd Photo Shoot (Planning)

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Planning 2nd Photo Shoot

The second photoshoot that I’m planning for this project is still based around water but instead of looking at environmental portraits like last time I am going to be looking at some abstraction and specifically colour. Based on my blog post about colour palettes I am going to be looking at blue/green for several reasons:

  1. The sea water at the moment is way too murky to be able to use it for underwater photography. I have been trying each weekend to see if the water is clear but every time it is the same thing. No visibility at more than ~1m can be found at the moment.
  2. It is too cold to be able to stay in the water for a long time even with a wetsuit on. And after about 2 hours my ability to operate my cameras is severely limited, often photos will be blurry because of me shaking and water movement.
  3. The pool that I have access to is a light blue colour on the inside, this will mean that without placing something into the water for a new background this colour will have to be included.
  4. The final and simplest reason is that water is blue. To represent this underwater environment I cannot completely ignore the colour of the substance when colour is the focus of the shoot.

After using and seeing the results of my first shoot I decided that, although a lot of fun to use, it will not always be practical to use for this project, time constraints and constraints on the number of photos that I could take drove me to look for a waterproof case for my Nikon D5200. I had already been considering buying one but this need for one just gave me the justification to do so.

This is the case with my camera inside. I purchased it from DICAPAC through their Amazon site. It is nothing special, just a zip-lock seal which is rolled down to seal and held with velcro. It allows be to use a camera which is much more versatile underwater or in conditions where the camera may become very wet. I plan on using this for the shoot but if the conditions permit I might try using my underwater film camera.

The main idea for this shoot is to have a model wearing make up be under the water or interacting with the water. to make the images even more surreal I am going to be using my male friend as the model, I will be borrowing the makeup and makeup skill of some of my female friends. I will be aiming to use blue/green coloured make up to go with the background and hopefully have a slightly matching color pallette. I am not sure what the images will turn out like but I am excited to see and try.

Planning

TODD HIDO/HAMISH FULTON INSPIRED EXPERIMENTATION SPECIFICATION/PLANNING

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I wanted to move onto portrait photographs after looking at ones created by Bill Henson and Todd Hido. Who both used portraiture as a way to build on the narrative of the photograph, often their work is psychologically charged and designed to connect the viewer to their own experiences. I plan on using my brother Ryan as a model, in the past he has proven very good for taking photographs and his slightly mysterious persona and ambiguous expression is perfect for the role.

There is a particular mirror in my house which allows you to see the reflection of someone without actually seeing them. With the correct lighting I plan on creating eerie photographs evoking a sense of human presence which both Henson and especially Hido’s work convey. I also plan on using this shoot to convey a feeling of enigma, engaging the audience to think about the character in the photo and what might be happening within the photograph.

I plan on using a tripod and creating a long exposure shot as I will be using a very low light source. I have found blue Christmas lights which I will place above the staircase, meaning light will come and reflect our of the mirror. Using this type of lighting means i will have a lot of control over the amount of light in the frame, unlike when i have worked with natural lighting. I plan on removing distracting features from the frame such as paintings to leave the viewer more focus on the figure, lighting and the mirror.

I also plan on responding to Bill Henson’s dark and jarring portrait photographs. I plan on taking these outside using the built in flash on my camera and a very quick exposure time with a low ISO to replicate the dark and high contrast tones in Ryan’s complexion, this will also mean I don’t haft to worry about over shaky images that come from using a slow exposure. I plan on using makeup such as red and blue powder to exaggerate the fleshy tones in his skin.

Planning

Nocturnal HDR photoshoot specification/planning

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After the previous successful shoot I wanted to explore the same area and challenge myself to make more HDR images using dynamic and dark lighting, similar to that of Bill Henson’s dark nocturnal landscapes. I decided to take photographs from a time beyond dusk where there was very low natural lighting and use man made lighting that was available in the scene to add intensity and narrative. After the previous shoot I noticed there were a lot of different light sources such as motion censored lights as well as lights from windows. Similar to the previous shoot I plan on using HDR techniques and multiple exposures to emphasize areas that lacked light. I plan on referencing Todd Hido’s work with his use of lights from windows and using the composition to isolate houses in the frame. I also plan on creating edits using the images similar to Hamish Fulton by adding text and filters over the image in Photoshop.

Inspiration, Planning

Environment – Specification

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When assigned with the theme of environment, I wanted to try and capture the lifestyles and settings of me and my friends. Nevertheless, this concept as an individual project is quite generic and predictable and I feel as if more imagination is required in order to make my work unique. When provided with the brief of ‘environment’ one of the first instincts is going to be the multiple environments of a social group. I don’t want to jump straight to this idea, as the process will be followed by a plethora of other students. My thinking process at this stage was conceptualizing ways in which that I could incorporate some kind of personal element or unique characteristic into this generic idea. I came up with the idea of utilizing disposable cameras. Everywhere I go, I take a disposable camera with me.  I really enjoy taking photographs with disposables and love the ‘old-school’ vintage aesthetic that they bring. I think that I love them so much due to the subconscious nostalgia they bring. When I was a child and technology was not quite as advanced, my family and I would always use disposable cameras. We would take them on holidays and vacations as they were cheap, easy to use and did the job. If I look through my house, I will find thousands of disposable photographs documenting my childhood  right from the day I was born. I love the physicality of them and how they will always be there, regardless of the advancing digital technology. As a result, I actually prefer using my disposable as oppose to the camera on my phone or canon. I came up with the idea of taking a photograph of my environment with a disposable camera before passing it on to a friend and instructing him or her to do the same. This process would be repeated until more than 10 people have produced images of their personal settings and environments. I like the process of this project, as it involves the participation of a small community and the documentation of multiple environments. It provides the viewer with a quick, sneaky insight into the life of multiple characters. This project takes advantage of the portable, compact and light nature of a disposable camera demonstrating how we can easily transfer images and memories between one another. When providing my friends with the camera, I will simply instruct them to take 3 photographs. This is the only guidance I will provide them. Doing this will ensure that they are not conscious of the brief and fabricating photographs that are not representational of their lifestyle. I want the photographers to produce work whilst unaware of its purpose.

A mood board of Travel Photography which demonstrates the kind of work I wish to be producing for this project.

My second idea also incorporates the use of a disposable camera but for a different purpose. For this project I would focus on tourism and travelling. In early April, I am travelling on a cruise around the Mediterranean, visiting dozens of cities around Europe. This includes locations such as Rome, Florence, Pisa, Athens, Pompeii, Monaco, Marseilles and Barcelona. Typically, disposable cameras were perfect for tourists, allowing them to carry small, lightweight cameras to capture their adventures that were inexpensive and temporary. They prevented the hassle of packing a chunky camera that could be easily damaged, also ideal for families and travelers in the late 20th century who could not afford professional cameras. Nevertheless, disposables have gone out of fashion, rarely used due to the introduction of smart phones and their ability to take great photos whilst maintaining the compact lightweight physicality shared by disposables. Although disposables are still sold in stores, their popularity is a shadow of its former self. I would use a disposable to capture the culture and individual atmospheres of each city, looking at landmarks, historical sites and famous locations.  This is known as Travel Photography. Travel photography is a genre of  photography that may involve the documentation of an area’s landscape, people, cultures, customs and history. The Photographic Society of America defines a travel photo as an image that expresses the feeling of a time and place, portrays a land, its people, or a culture in its natural state, and has no geographical limitations. Many travel photographers specialise in a particular aspect of photography such as travel portraits, landscape or documentary photography as well as shooting all aspects of travel. Alternatively, this can idea can be done without a disposable camera and then I can produce a larger quantity of work.

Planning, Research

Documentary: Plastic Pollution – Planning

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After fully exploring representing the problem of plastic pollution, using symbolic studio techniques, I next wanted to move on to showing this issue in a documentary style. As I mentioned in my plastic studio planning, I am aiming explore this topic from a photo-journalistic point of view, showing plastics effect on our island. Because plastic is used for near enough everything these days I have chosen to pin point my work to one specific plastic pollution type. Below I have made a list and contact sheet depicting a number of plastic pollution topics I could look into for my next shoot…When thinking about our island and the ways in which I could capture all of these subjects that I have listed above, one topic for me really stood out. Because I will be looking at a mixture of pollution materials when documenting things such as beaches and landfills later in my project. Subjects like plastic packaging, grocery bags, fishing plastic and micro-plastics are all things I can show together where they are found. So in conclusion I will be concentrating on agricultural plastic waste because it is so common to see on our islands as well as being a massive contributor to global plastic waste.

The reason ‘plasticulture’ is so prominent in Jersey is because of our famous Jersey Royal potatoes. Our export of this crop accounts for around 70% of agricultural turnover, 99% of which is shipped to the United Kingdom. The term plasticulture refers to the practice of using plastic materials in agricultural applications. Unfortunately this method is used for Jersey’s potatoes to produce earlier harvesting, improved quality and larger marketable yields. Polyethylene is the plastic film used by the majority of growers because of its affordability, flexibility and easy manufacturing. I think this topic is a fantastic example of plastic pollution on our island because of huge amount of this material spread over large areas (representing our problem with over using this material in every sense). Polyethylene is the most common plastic, we produce around 80 million tonnes per year, its primary use is in packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, containers including bottles, etc.). Agricultural films are one of the largest contributors to the billions of pounds of plastics that are discarded by farms across the globe each year.

To record this problem, using straight photography techniques, I will have to travel around the rural areas of Jersey looking for examples of ‘plasticulture’ and the waste it leaves behind. To do this I will begin by simply walking around the fields in St Martin and Gorey, as I have already spotted quite a few examples in my day-to-day travels. All I will need to complete this shoot is my camera and natural light from the sun, it will be interesting to see how much of this plastic waste I can find (supporting my point of this being a massive plastic pollution issue). My goal for this shoot is to dive into documentary photography and explore the truth about my chosen topic in-depth without manipulation. When researching this farming technique for images to inspire me, I was very surprised to find that there where hardly any examples of using plastic the way Jersey farmers do. The images below show narrow lines of plastic spread out across fields whereas, from what I have seen on the island so far, we truly cover our fields from top to bottom in this lightweight plastic film. 

Analysis, Planning

Initial specification and reflection

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So far I have thought about various approaches to the theme of environment. I have considered ideas to do with performance, documentary, land art and sculpture. There are elements from each of these that interest me but don’t appear strong enough alone. From reviewing the mark scheme and examples of student exam projects I can see the importance of sustaining and developing focused ideas rather than having many disconnected responses. For this reason I have narrowed my ideas down to several key starting points which I am going to focus on and develop.  I am also planning to do more research around the deeper themes in my work and consider other disciplines as well as looking into some more artist references.

Firstly I am going to explore portraiture and performance photography possibly using a more surreal approach by experimenting with long exposures and some artistic editing techniques such as superimposition. I’m also going to make use of mirrors and reflections which is how I could bring in the idea of the mirror from the Foot buildings if this is a possibility. In my shoots I could consider human relationships and connections to environments as well as the idea of natural vs domestic spaces. I am thinking of taking inspiration from artists such as Clare Rae as well as others such as Francesca Woodman.

As an element in my project I think I am going to consider the concept of abandonment in relation to how humans alter environments. This connects to previous ideas I have explored such as the decay of old buildings and past human traces in them. I am going to explore the idea of abandoned/lost things that don’t belong in certain environments and things that have been given away. I might take inspiration from photographers such as Mark Dion and collect objects from environments and photograph them. This idea could also include photographing environments such as storage spaces and charity/ antique shops and could incorporate the ideas from early shoots I have done at the animals shelter and the idea of institutions/community services.

I would also like to include an element of Earth art in my project possibly by using the materials found in the environments  where I am exploring performance photography. This could also relate to the idea of abandoned objects by showing the human presence in natural landscapes for example at beaches and working with natural and man-made materials. This could also be an opportunity to make use of stop-frame animation and film as I was inspired by the idea of animated land art such as the example below.

Additionally If I was going to use myself in photographs I think it might be easier to use film and then take stills from the video footage. I could possibly experiment with combining performance and stop frame animation using materials from landscapes to further consider the relationship between people and environments.

Planning

Shoot 1 Redo specification/planning

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After the first photo shoot where I explored the rural/suburban countryside I was dissatisfied with the photographs especially the lighting which made the photographs appear flat. After looking at the photographs of Todd Hido and his use of dynamic lighting which could elevate and add narrative to an image I wanted to explore how I could use lighting from my surroundings to create a compelling photograph. I plan on looking at a more suburban area which will feature a more dynamic range of lighting such as streetlights as well as the natural light available. I plan on picking a time where the lighting is lower around six o clock onwards, this will give me a small window of time for me to take photographs as the light will be constantly changing during this time. I will also need to use a tripod as I will need to create long exposure photographs to work with the low light.

Due to there being a variety of different lighting sources I will need to take multiple exposure photographs and will combine them in Photoshop using HDR techniques. I have picked a location nearby to enable easy access to the area so I can get the best timing. I also know this area very well so already have photographs in mind I can take. I also plan on returning to this location to take different shots and build a consistent narrative which I could combine together to make a published book. Similar to Todd Hido’s and Bill Henson’s use of using people in his work I plan on using models in my work to build another level of narrative. This can also help explore ad expand on my initial idea of looking at peoples relationship with their natural surroundings and this contrast of nature and civilization. Creating atmosphere is crucial to this shoot. I plan on enhancing what is already present in the photographs to create a sense of mood and ambiance in the photograph.

Below are some tester shots of the locations I plan on using for my shoots. As I have discussed before I plan on picking a time of day where the lighting will give the images a very mysterious, cinematic effect. There are some features I may have to move out of the frame as they may be distracting or create an overly cluttered look, but I plan on trying to keep the photographs as authentic as possible.

Planning

Specification for fourth shoot

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Noimont point. i have chosen this place as it on the edge of the cliff and there is lots of bunkers and canons there. I will stick with two models who will be wearing the same clothes as in shoot 3 and the same makeup. I will be doing this shoot on either Friday 31st March or Sunday 2nd of April.

Noimont Point:

  • The bunkers will create a contrast between the beautiful area with clean air and the gas masks.
  • It will also relate to the history of Jersey with gas masks and just add a bit of back story to this project.
  • I want to capture images of them wanting to breath in the “clean air” by the edges of the cliffs but a safe distance from the edge.
  • I want to get pictures of them on top of the bunkers and hidden behind the bushes and paths which go along the coast.
  • I want to communicate that even the most beautiful places in Jersey which we often go to get a breath of even fresher air, will become toxic.
  • My first model which is my friend Hannah will be wearing a purple jumper and black jeans, with dark eye makeup.
  • My second model will be wearing a colorful shirt with black jeans and no makeup.
  • They will be wearing these pieces of clothing as they will stand out from the green and dull looking colours of Noimont Point.