Link to my Book: Baptism

The exam brief was to create photos around the words Freedom and Limitations. I made a book with the name Baptism. The reason for this is because when a person is baptized it is a symbolic representation of what God has done in their life. In this we believe God has washed away the old life and this person has started a new life with god. ‘Old’ and ‘New’ are keys words in the context of my book. By using software I was able to change the original colors and intensify them. Giving these photos New Life with New Colors.

Previously I have been studying the spiritual link between color and the soul. I read the book ‘Concerning the Spiritual in Art’ by Wassily Kandinsky, in this he writes about how certain colors can effect human emotions differently. I wanted this to be the case with my book. Baptism is a very spiritual thing and I found calling my book that linked everything together nicely. When a person is baptized the person has the Freedom to start over to begin a new life. Before these photos were Limited by the colors that they were captured in. But I have given these photos the Freedom to change, to be something new, with new colors that effect the soul differently to when the photos were initially taken.

I personally have had the Freedom to work with different colors and saturation levels than I would when using the photos the way they were taken. Being able to experiment and dramatically change these photos has very Freeing. Personally I think I have met the brief as I have felt Freedom making these photos and have showed how Limitations have been broken, Freeing these photos.

James Welling has the freedom to explore using different techniques and mediums. He has used color filters. overlay techniques and many others that create these beautiful abstract photos. One of the works of James Welling that inspired me the most is the one you can see below this. This is one of the photos from the Glass house project. In these photos colors have been split and changed. In this photo only the sky has changed to orange and the snow has stayed white. However, other photos there are often two of more colors. Like red and yellow and in some cases Welling used a diffraction filter that split the light into the spectrum. Throughout my work I have used digital filters. I have changed the hue, white balance and have used the Split Toning tool. All these to heighten these colors and make them pop out. I I often used the brush tool is I wanted to give something  else a different color. Welling has been one of the largest inspirations in the project.

Another inspiration of mine when decided how to take photos was Jessica Backhaus. It was her Symphony of Shadows (as seen above) that caught my attention as it was full of color, so simplistic yet so fascinating. This inspired me to take more simple photos. Instead of a wall I often used the sky as a backdrop but changed the colors in Lightroom, giving the freedom to make these different abstract and simplistic photos. Backhaus’ composition of these shadows and shapes on the wall is very cleverly done to make the photo much more interesting. It makes you look at something you wouldn’t think twice about looking at in normal day life. That’s what I wanted to do, I wanted to bring new life to these mundane objects. The photo below is one of my own and inspired by Backhaus’ work. I have used the sky as a backdrop, it’s so simplistic yet so effective.

This is my favorite photo of mine from this project. It was captured in the moment. I saw the bird sitting there and it stayed there long enough for me to frame up and take the photo before flying away. I also like the colors in the photo. The wide open space of just purple, with a bird almost like a silhouette to right of the photo on top of this deep orange rock. I like this photo because it links well to narrative. I wanted the photos to have a spiritually feeling to them which often people feel when looking a nature. This photo shows nature and the colors work together very well. People often see nature a freeing as it does not answer to anybody it just happens. Also people often relate birds to freedom as they are able to fly where ever they want. The phrase that comes to mind is “Free as a Bird” again showing another form of spiritual freedom.  I think I like this image so much because it was such a tense photo to take, any quick movement would have startled the bird and it would have flown away. But I took my time and got the shot I was looking for.

This project was very enjoyable. The project was about freedom and I really felt like I had that when creating these photos. To explore color and discover it’s link between human emotion was very interesting. Showing how color can change a photo completely. The time given gave me time to make mistakes and create photos I really liked. I was challenged to make photos that were interesting, full of color and had a spiritual connection.

link to my magazine, Boys Will Be Boys

From reviewing my exam project which looks at the fashion of teenage boys on Jersey and how this can provide a means of expression, I feel a sense of satisfaction because the whole project project has been very rewarding. I had never produced work as I have done in this project before and because of this, the completion of the project has been very rewarding because of the effort gone into approaching models to photograph and the success of the majority of the shoots. This project has been a very collaborative project and relied heavily on the cooperation of my subjects that I was attempting to tell the stories of. Therefore, the relationship between my subjects and myself was vital in allowing for a true representation for their “story” – a story that explored the way they dress and the reasons behind why they dress in the style they do. On top of this primary focus on fashion, I also made it may aim to relate this to how teenage boys, who are often so caught up in portraying a masculine persona, can lose a sense of security and identity in themselves if they didn’t have fashion as a means to express themselves. This is how I related the whole project to freedom and limitations – my focus on revealing a certain sensitiveness behind the mask of masculinity allowed me to explore the theme of freedom.

Furthermore, my study into several artists allowed me to understanding the history of fashion photography as well as street fashion photography and the allowed me to see how this differed to the much more conceptual and socially-aware portraits of young people to tell a narrative. Having studied how such successful photographers such as David Bailey of the 20^th century who captured a model’s features in a single image allowed me to understand where to start in terms of portraiture. In addition, looking at the work of young photographer, James Greenhalgh allowed me to gather a sense of understanding into how to tell a story of a subject through a use of careful body and facial expressions.

After completing five different photoshoots, I have managed to collate around 25 images, about 5 for each character and these edits are images I can be proud of because I believe this project has challenged me and challenged my ability to interact with people in order to create meaningful imagery. In conclusion, I believe I fulfilled the exam brief to my full potential and the images I have at the end of this project, all coincide with one another to create a cohesive project that follows the story of five different characters and their attempts to feel a sense of acceptance.