The exploration of both Bruno Del Zou and John Stezaker led to me the idea of experimenting with visual perception, linking to the way we see ourselves.  When researching this idea I came across a series of photographs called ‘The Identity Project’ taken by the French photographers Bruno Metra and Laurence Jeanson. They created a series of portraits that deal with the concepts of identity, beauty and otherness. Experimenting with our visual perception, they apply cut outs of facial features from glossy magazines onto their subjects faces to create a new form of facial expression, like they appear to have cosmetic surgery.

http://www.123inspiration.com/plastic-surgery-with-magazines-by-metra-bruno-and-laurence-jeanson/

“Magazines, cinema, television, keep creating and imposing codes that become social references. What one must look like, how to make up, what clothes to wear, how to behave… We are fascinated by the power of media to influence people’s identities.”

The series provides a compelling visual juxtaposition between everyday humans and the images seen in advertisements, taking a hard look at our identity, as each subject in the photograph de-faces and destroys her or his own image.

To explore this I planned to do an experimentation, taking inspiration from Bruno Metra and Laurence Jeanson , incorporating images from  magazines on peoples faces. First, I would try having printed  images and attaching faces from magazines and re-taking the picture and secondly physically attaching the cut out facial features over their eyes, lips, and noses to my subjects face, like Bruno Metra and Laurence Jeanson did in their series.

In my photo shoot I used a few different heads cut out of magazines and found that the one I used in the images that I’ve decided to experiment with was the most effective out of them all. This is because the cut of was the closest to the size of the actual model head.I then chose my favourite 6 images and displayed them next to each other so i could compare them. The pictures already had an yellow/orange tint when I took them which is what i wanted but i then decided to edit them to experiment with colours.

Although i do like the images edited with colour I decided my final 3 images for this shoot be in black and white as it gives them a dramatic effect that is not achieved in colour.

To edit these images i turned them black and white and increased the contrast to make the magazine cut out stand out even more compared to the subjects face. Doing this highlights the cutout and emphasises the shadow between the face and the paper creating a mask-like effect (especially on the 3rd image) and creates a clear division between the two. I decided for my final images to be in black and white as i did not want them to look over edited and too unnatural. I think I did a good interpretation of  Bruno Metra and Laurence Jeanson photography linking to the visual juxtaposition between everyday humans and the images seen in advertisements and their exploration of identity.

My second shoot idea would be a close up face shoot focusing on editing and tones:

aim;To be inspired my tonal beauty and a relationship within the vulnerability of facial insecurity and a lack of vision,also an unknowing of reflection and being.

editing techniques:

1)A substance to cover the eyes

2)Dissolving the image itself

3)Bluring the image over the face and also to create a sense of movement.

4)Poke holes within the image to create a source of light and lack of being.

For this piece I was inspired by the abstract and more hardship and lines within the piece itself, it shows a harsh lines and brutal ship in order to symbolize a removal of ability to see who they are and express and talk about who they are and emphasis that lack of identity.there is also a harsh contrast within the beauty and close up of the face and the visor and abstract destruction of the rest of the shoots. there is also a theme of negatives and how the images have and as if they are an outcast.

For this I was inspired by the lack of face and the movement of the nudge altogether,it shows a development of their personality and overall.I also want to show an interposing composition within this work so possibly using hands over the face to show an interesting miss direction of the piece itself. I like the way in which the face is still completely in connect and it is only the neck that is a somewhat diffusion of the body.It is very abstract  but still clear demonstration of lack of identity within a sense of confusion.

The overall composition of this piece is interetsing as it shows a grasp and focus only upon the body.The blur this time is focused more upon the face and a stillness of struggle upon the body itself, I like how the hair blends in within the movement of the face.The hands show an effort to grasp,perhaps in order to indicate a sense of release of wanting to hold onto something,perhaps a past memory or trying to grasp themselves.

I chose this concept due to the way in which light can be used to enhance the people and show an interesting form of almost censorship, the light shows a gapping within the images, the light does not come through their face but only surrounded themselves indicating the main centered interest and also a sense of their spirit and not surrounding on what they look like themselves.

Artist I was influenced by is:Taylor Chan

best edited  images:

For this first image I was inspired by the first image shown above, it shows a removal of every feature that creates an impact of purpose, there is a sense of aggression swell that I wanted to show through the raggedness of the marks within the paper itself.

  Within this image I wanted to show a blur and repletion of the face throughout my images and how their shadows and positions are the same and there is only a  movement within their face, this was inspired by the second images want to further edit this though in such a way that it clearly shows a forward movement and blurring of the face but in a. more dynamic method.

Here I used the image above in order to show a lack of identity  again showing a removal of the eyes but in a way of covering them which is not as quite sinister as the previous. it shows a sense of blinding them of covering them fro the truth in a way. And much like below this is the same effect of raggedly removing of covering up who they are. 

within these two I additionally wanted to show previous editing techniques of cutting out and getting a light from underneath in order to highlight the holes and ragged sensation from within the image.The random marks allow a presentation of harm and unwanted areas that symbolize within the loss of identity itself. It is also enhanced within the slow shutter speed of the piece additionally.

This edit was unsuccessful,I wanted to connote a movement of the face and a sense of blurring but overall it looks more liquefied and not the aspect of  loss and movement that I was trying to portray.

evaluation:Overall this shoot was effective by using the original editing ideas and transferring those onto my own personal work,however i do not feel as though these images are the strongest out of this project even though they do show a sense of loss of identity throughout.

My third and final shoot will be a projection of colors and lights all over the body and face.

aim:To show a conceptual insulation of color and personality and a vulnerability of exposure to express within themselves,also the contradicting blend of themselves hidden within the background of the piece itself.

edits:

1)To show  a vibrancy and blending of colors

2)Transparent sheet with paint to show levels and abstract sense of movement.

3)A blur of movement added.

These two ideas of projection ideas allow a vast amount of abstract color and also patterns to form  a sense of structure,I chose this because of the vibrancy and how it could possibly be used to reflect a persona of personality within the images themselves.This idea could also be furthered to cover and or hide the persona within the light,this can be used to present the destructive idea that they are not seen or perhaps the  environment surrounding them is always moving and creative and they themselves are purely an observer.

This idea is highly surrounding more structure and form,much like my previous artists it suggests rope and being tied and  constricted not knowing of how they are and or made it be,furthermore the structure highlights and enhance certain specific arts of the face itself. These pieces also always have an interesting angle to the piece itself,to further presents and over exaggerate the use of the light,this is interesting because the position being highly centered and not free connotes their body attitude and as low sense of esteem. 

This idea allows writing that symbolizes the persona and what they the,selves inside are feeling,this suggests their suffering and journey as to what they are going throughout,this can also be used to develop more tonal work within the portrait.

An additional artist who uses the projection technique was: by  Lee Kirby. who’s project is called ‘pro-ject’ and is clearly surrounding that of projection onto the body,he was inspired throughout when he grew up to become a passionate painter, with large influences form his mother.he then continued to study fine art in Norwich ,
His way of working has always interested me, creating a painting that resembles a photograph. Richter focuses on photographic techniques when painting, even down to how photographic paper has a sheen to it, which he uses in his work.After finishing a Fine Art degree I started to study photography. Three years ago I had the idea to try and work like my hero Richter but in reverse, this is when Pro-ject was born.

within this image I really love the The composition of all of the images, the colours used, the placement, everything. You get a real sense of movement and emotion when you look at these images even though you do not know exactly what they are trying to represent, through the composition, body language and imagery projected, you get an idea.I was inspired by the way in which he uses light and creating the movements within the piece itself,it shows a hidden figure that is  usual’s moving in a highly creative format perhaps trying to leave the lack of  identity that they are currently within.This is my favorite image due to the blurred movement,and also how the color is so vibrant and how this presents the idea to be freeing but still unable to see a face.The color only attaching to the body and not the background is also interesting because it allows a direct contact and vision of the project purely surrounding the human form and lack of it.

These images are very inspired by cars and a slow shutter speed attracting light shown over the top of the persona to symbolize how they are always ignored and again showing the technique of  blending him into the background of the piece itself.

So overall I want to experiment within the lighting to cover everything and then develop it to form the conceptual concepts of illuminating a persona underneath and such.

best images:

For this section I used an image of a strong vibrant 3d shape in order to successfully show highlight so lines segregating the face into pieces, used to symbolises either e rope of constraint or a sense of dazed confusion and categorising of people.

For these images I used a vibrant sheet of paper in order to show an almost space theme of colour over the face,This reflects a vibrant persona to which they do not share with anyone or how the space is used to denote a vast mass of unused space so showing a lack of knowledge as to what their identity really is.

Here I wanted to show a reflection go insecurity that the person has, covering thecae with negative wording of what she describes herself as, this was ‘you are my own’ and ‘breath’ it reflects an insularity of who they are, but in addition also within the slow shutter speed shows a confusion with only a four on the words and not accurately who she is.

for this area I had a large spiral effect that I thought would be further edited by the idea of a slow shutter speed, it shows a reaching out movement that has a strong colour showing a reflection of struggle and also, faces continually overlapping and moving showing an act of confusion of identity and lack of self worth.

For these images I used a mixture of multiple backgrounds to exaggerate light and colour at the same time,with the first image I wanted to show a sense of frustration and display how she is unhappy and capture many forms of herself to show the side she shows to people and then who she is. the second sheets highlight a warmth and also a clear direct view of the person and almost an evolution of who she is.

I edited this image by furthering the colour and making it more variant and circulated into specific areas.The composition of her grabbing her face also allows her grabbing onto the aspect of space within herself. 

This image I chose because it has an interesting compassion and angle it shows due to the camera being onto that she has less authority and is controlled,the segregating lines also show  a sense of being trapped ad contained into aspects that ‘create’ herself.

I chose this image because you can see an emotion and a struggle within the images, there are multiple attitudes and beings in the image and you can see a focused sense of movement and also colour.

within all the previous three images I edited them by enhancing the contrast and adding more structure to allow more detail within the images. 

lastly I chose this image because I liked how there is a clear focus on the face but then a distorted amount of wording over it again reflecting what she thinks of herself is overly too important, furthermore that is also a clear focus on the words next to the image itself,which cause a change of focusing dynamic composition. 

Overall this shoot was a different way in which to capture loss of identity ink a slightly more colourful and perhaps positive way.Although I do think theses themes are quite far and I do not more applicable photoshoots and colours theatre less related to abstraction.