SPECIFICATION: Write a specification with 2-3 ideas about what you are planning to do; how, who, when, where and why? Use images to illustrate your ideas
To take this project in my own direction on the theme of variation and similarity I want to develop the idea of beauty ideals and views on perfection in the modern world. The idea that there is one view of perfection that people should conform to and aspire to reach rather than accepting that everyone is unique and different. I am going to look into reflections considering the artist reference of Erwin Blumenfeld and and reality and editing in the media. I want to start by conducting a simple portrait photo shoot so I can experiment with editing ideas and develop the concept further. I also want to look into celebrity culture and the new age of the influencer and how they can often create unrealistic expectations for looks and lifestyle. I have also thought about researching some theorists such as Kant and Plato and looking at their ideas on beauty, comparing them to modern ideas.
This link shows how this frame can be used to edit a face in photoshop to conform to this idea of perfection: https://fstoppers.com/post-production/perfect-face-anatomy-photoshops-liquify-tool-2657
For the final set of edits I’ve made I used the previous set and then used various images from the shoots I’ve done and overlayed them on top of the original images to add even more detail and definition to my images.
For my exam, I have come up with multiple ideas with what I am going to investigate for the title ‘Variation and Similarity.’ I am interested in exploring repetition, as I have done a few shoots and experimentations to do with this; for example, the doors and windows shoot I did that was inspired by Bernd and Hilla Becher. I would maybe use some of these images and create a grid format from some of my best images of my doors and windows shoot. However, I don’t want to base my exam just on this, as my shoot inspired by the Becher’s was only a mini shoot/experiment to see if I liked this style to portray the exam title, (although, this could be an aspect of my exam). I like the idea of repetition because this could be interpreted in many different ways. Some examples of what I could capture for this title is things like: shadows and lighting, reflections, architectural structures (like doors and windows,) sunlight, colour, water, nature, landscapes and seascapes.
Another main idea of mine is light vs shadows/darkness. I like this concept as I would be showing the repetition of light rays (e.g. from the sun) and shadows. I would have to take a couple of shoots at around 5:30pm, when there is a golden hour of sunlight. However, I could also photograph shoots early in the morning, when there is sunrise at around 6am. I like the idea of basing my project around the Sun; it is a bold factor in everyday life. In Jersey, we are the sunniest island within the Channel Islands, which I think I could research further to make my project more contextual and relevant. Moreover, I like the idea of shadows as this can be incorporated in many different ways; along with light.
The binary opposite of light is darkness. I think putting these two together for my exam would work successfully as I would be showing the variation of lights and tones – from light tones to darker tones (shadows). I think exploring light can be creative and I can plan many different and varied shoots that portray light – using sunlight for outdoor shoots and other lights for indoor shoots.
I would make a specific plan on things I would want to capture. To experiment with this first, I might do a mini shoot that explores the sun and shadows on nature, for example, the sea, fields, beaches and landscape views.
Additionally, I am keen to explore another typology approach; this time, I would choose to photograph 1 interesting, unique object/building that is based near around where I live, and go back to that same spot a couple of times, (around 10 times) at the same time each day, (about 5:30pm – when there is a bold stroke of sun). I need to make sure that this object I am choosing to photograph on a regular basis is either being hit by sun rays or where there are shadows reflected on the object. I am doing this because I think that this is a unique idea that portrays the development of something specific; the object would look slightly different each time I visit it, which fits into the theme variation, as well as similarity because I am choosing to capture the same object, just on different days. From this, after a few days (maybe about 6 – 7) I would choose 2 or 3 best images from this developing shoot and include them in my project – so that I am exploring light and shadows within one specific object and how this can change over time.
These 2 shoots that I have come up with to start off my exam photo-shoots may be successful, in which I will use the images in my final outcome.
On top of this, I like the idea of illuminance; this is the total luminous flux incident on a surface, per unit area. I would like to explore the effects of light in general, not just the natural light caused by the Sun. Artificial light can create amazing photography, and I think this is a shoot I would like to experiment with. To do this, I would use a dark room and get a torch or spotlight and place it on a range of objects, or a model. To make this more intriguing, I could use different coloured filters and place them in front of the light to create a more creative, coloured series of images. If this shoot is successful, I may have to base my project around the idea of illuminance and darkness; this can be more of a general approach, so that I can use photos created by the use of artificial light as well as the earth’s natural resource of sunlight.
Overall, I think my main photography exam is going to be based on the title light vs darkness. This way, I can explore more creative ways of photographing objects/models in light as I can use artificial light and stage my photos more. With the noun ‘darkness’, this can again, be explored in more interesting concepts, as I can use shadows as a starting point for my photos on this side of the project. Yet, I can also photograph objects/models that I can create a darkness onto by adjusting the camera settings (the ISO etc). I think this would work better as I can compare two opposites that have a broader title. The variance of objects I use within my shoots links to the ‘variation’ aspect of the exam title, whereas my images will have a similarity in that they all share illuminance and darkness, (linking to the ‘similarity’ aspect of the exam title). My project will communicate how light and darkness can create similar moods – light can communicate happiness or uplifting vibes and darkness can communicate eeriness or uncertainty.
For my cut images is used a black background on a standard 8×10 landscape base, I then chose various images and cut them from the original images using the magic wand tool to create a tear like effect and then I moved them across to the black landscape base and resized them to fit to corners and areas so that other cuts could be moved across.
Idea 1: I have considered taking photos of peoples skin it is something everyone has in common but can also be so different, from imperfections such as spots and berth marks to skin colour I could even look into different ages and how skin changes over time.
idea 2: Reflections, opposites, using mirrors to frame parts of the body, angle and perspective, world inside the mirror, alternate reality/ fantasy.
idea 3: How people dress to express themselves and show their individuality, introvert/ extrovert.
POST-MODERNISM VS MODERNISM
Postmodernism was a reaction against modernism. Modernism is a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by reactions of horror to World war 1. Modernism also rejected the certainty of enlightenment thinking, and many modernists rejected religious belief. Photographers began to produce work with a sharp focus and an emphasis on formal qualities, exploiting, rather than obscuring, the camera as an essentially mechanical and technological tool. In this context, “modern” is not used in the sense of “contemporary”, but merely as a name for a specific period in history.
Postmodernism is the name given to the defining artistic movement of the second half of the 20th century. Modernism was characterised by a rejection of previous artistic trends, such as Romanticism and a tendency toward realism. Postmodernism is a large movement that developed in the mid- to late 20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture and criticism and that marked a departure from modernism. The term has also more generally been applied to the historical era following modernity and the tendencies of this era.
In Lewis Bush’s ‘Metropole’ he used a technique of double exposure. In response to this approach to presenting the shapes and features of buildings I have attempted to create edits by layering photographs over eachother to create confusion and an abstractness within the photographs. This links to the theme ‘Variance and Similarity’ because it explores the fact that there are an increasing amount of large buildings for offices or flats taking away from green land and so the landscape in which we live is turning into a repetitive view of similar flats and offices leaving citizens with a feeling of monotony as everything is being redeveloped to serve the same purpose. By using a double exposure technique it is merging together both similar and different building faces to create one abstract and abnormal building face. Bush’s work on ‘Metropole’ shows a lot of emphasis on the repetition between buildings due to his double exposure effect.
I think that my experimentation with using double exposure whilst drawing inspiration from Lewis Bush has resulted in a type of composition that is both familiar and unfamiliar – similar to the feeling that John Coplans evokes in his audience with his photographs of his different body parts. I believe that this method of presentation is effective as it catches the eye and forces the viewer to think about what they are looking at as well as picking apart the image but I think that when trying to convey the theme of ‘Variance and Similarity’ it may compromise the ability of the photographs to show the differences between different buildings as well as the similarities within them due to the fact that it merges the buildings together. Although saying this, upon looking deeply into the features of the photograph the viewer will spot features of different houses and will be able to see features that do not belong to the base house in the photograph and so will be effective in establishing the different individualistic features that belong to each house. Therefore I will not write off this method of experimentation as it achieves the aim of causing the viewer to look deeper into the photographs.
John Baldessari is an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lives and works in Santa Monica and Venice, California. He was a painter, however Baldessari began to incorporate texts and photography into his canvases in the mid-1960s. He painted in a gestural style but by the end of the decade he had begun to introduce pre-existing images and text often creating riddles that highlighted some of the unspoken assumptions of contemporary painting and in the 1970s he abandoned painting altogether and instead made a large range of media. His interests generally still focused on the photographic image.
We spent a lesson outside the classroom to do a an outdoor photo shoot task. Started out in pairs we would throw balls up in the air in an attempt to try frame and photograph them with no blur and the ball being in the centre of the view finder. We did this by using a high shutter speed on our cameras in attempt to clearly capture the object. The point of this task was to try and teach us how to photograph a moving object while ensuring the subject was framed in the correct way.
We then focused on our partners. In this task we again used a high shutter speed on our cameras and tried to photograph our partner who was consistency moving around. This tasked also focused on moving objects and trying to capture them without motion blur.
Further experimenting
I wanted to experiment further by editing my Images in the style of Baldessari’s works by covering their faces with coloured circles. I did multiple experiments but found these three were the best due to the original image being stronger than other images from the shoot. I found these images where strong as they had multiple subjects in the image and worked the best when creating images the same way as John Baldessari.
Video evidence from the shoot