For my next shoot, I am going to create pictures in reference to my Worship mind-map so I am going to plan and prepare for it by jotting down words that are associated with the key term used, or describe a picture that my mind sees when I hear or see a term.

Appearance – clothing, make-up, conscious of skin, toying with gender differences/ transvestites/ transgender. – Linking to the work of Paul M Smith – http://www.paulmsmith.co.uk/index.html

Family – different roles within the home, sitting at the dinner table with one another, acting and dressing up as each member of the family – In relation to a Larry Sultan method of taking photographs e.g. the composition of the photograph – http://larrysultan.com/

Sport – watching from the pub/sidelines, becoming a player, manager, official or referee – again linking to Smith

Religion – a lonely man on a bench outside the church, praying, suggesting he is a widower – again referring to Sultan, particularly the composition of the man sat on the bed.

Technology – on the phone, in town to portray how everybody is on their phones, gamers, my sister on her iPad

Night/Pub life – drunk, silly behavior, playing pool, selecting music on the juke box, drinking alcohol, are men there lonely? Watching the football, “ladish” nature

In my mind-map from previous blog posts, I drafted the term celebrities, and of course everybody has their idols and who they look up to. From a very early age we are exposed to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood stars whether this individual is an actor, singer or dancer etc… Perhaps people aspire to look like them, sound like them or possess the same talent they have which creates this sense of worship as the “common people” idolize them.

For me, David Bowie has always been a hero of mine as he promotes being yourself and his unique personality always reflected his music. David Bowie, throughout his long and successful career adopted numerous different stage characters or alter egos to accompany his music productions, for example, his most notable and recognized character development is Ziggy Stardust. Ziggy Stardust was a  flamboyant and androgynous character with distinctive reddish-brown hair and striking clothing.

Other renown character alter egos are Major Tom, the Thin White Duke,  Aladin Sane and Jareth the Goblin King; all of which depict a different Bowie era or phase.

The influence Bowie has given me is the feeling that I should appear how I like and say and do things that make me happy, yet I discovered Bowie through my father and his mother as they both connected through the singer/actor, demonstrating how music, which is an art just like photography, can unite people.

In Paul M Smith’s photography, he portrays a theme using himself as the model throughout which is a technique I would like to adopt bearing in mind the various identities Bowie possessed.