Monthly Archives: January 2019

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AO1 Develop Ideas, Homework, Unit 1 Abstract

Gallery visit

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I found the work in the exhibition we went to amazing. The work by Clare Rae, being inspired by Claude Cahun, looks almost as if they were taken by the same person. The fact that they both focus on female empowerment and take their photos in the same sort of white, grey and black tones makes it obvious that Clare Rae was aiming to make her work similar to those by Claude Cahun. However, Rae didn’t copy her completely, she added her own twist to it by taking portraits of herself, whereas Cahun used multiple different women within her pieces.

The way the exhibition was presented helped us compare the two artists in a way which we could easily see the differences and similarities. By being placed in two rooms right next to each other, we could easily switch between the two, and the neatness of it allowed us to see the work clearly and without confusion as to which was who’s.

Clare Rae

This is one of my favourite pictures by Clare Rae. It shows Rae hiding behind a part of a cliff that’s sticking out with her legs and one of her hands in clear view. What I especially like is the tone, it’s mysterious. You only see half of her, you can’t see her face at all. You can’t see her emotions and you can’t tell what she’s thinking while taking this picture. Some also might say that it’s her way of saying that she feels like she needs to hide, possibly due to her gender as Cahun got across in her work multiple times.

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Claude Cahun

This is one of my favourite pictures by Claude Cahun. It shows a woman posing with a top which on it says “I am in training. Don’t kiss me”. This could suggest that, as with Clare Rae, that due to her gender she feels restricted with what she can and cannot do. It could also come across as she has certain expectations to live up to as a woman, and the writing on her top may refer to a woman’s role within marriage at the time this was taken, as to be considered the ‘perfect’ wife you’d have to pretty much be trained in what was considered as ‘feminine’ jobs, such as cooking, cleaning and looking after the household.

AO3 Record Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Possible photos For mock exam – Self Portraits

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* Denotation – What is literally in the image

In the image above I have got the girl position on a chair facing towards the camera, the person is wearing a tiara, glasses and earrings.

* Connotation – The meaning, what is implied/suggested by the photo

 

* Studium – What we know about the photograph based on our own knowledge of the context

i know that it is taken in a studio

 

* Punctum – meaning that pierces/pushes you personally – initial emotional reaction (not every photo has a punctum)

On this picture i have used a filter called oil paint where it makes the picture look like as if it has been painted on, Also it can be seen as it it is on a piece of crumbled paper. I like this as it could resemble a lack or loss of identity.

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 2 Portrait

Self Identity

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From the stimuli given, I’m going to focus more on the idea of self identity. This will include self portraits and timed frames. This can aid me to explore a person’s ‘mental identity’ because i’m exploring my own. This then can enable me to convey more emotions and ideas due to the model and the photographer being the same mind – it can help convey they correct message. 

The definition of self identity is – ‘the perception or recognition of one’s characteristics as a particular individual, especially in relation to social context’

Self identity is all a collection of beliefs that can physically embody the concept of ‘Who am I?’. This in relation to the stimuli can show the reality of someones thoughts and feelings. 

 

First Ever Self-Portrait

The first ever self portrait photograph was created by Robert Cornelius. It was created in 1839 , taken only a few months after Louis Daguerre revealed his daguerreotype process in 1839. Cornelius simply ran in front of the camera after taking the cover off the lens, vastly different to today’s technique of snapping away.  

Homework, Unit 2 Portrait

Homework-Portraits

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Portrait photography or portraiture in photography is a photograph of a person or group of people that captures the personality of the subject by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait picture might be artistic, or it might be clinical, as part of a medical study. Frequently, portraits are commissioned for special occasions, such as weddings or school events.Portraits can serve many purposes, from usage on a personal Web site to display in the lobby of a business.

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History

The relatively low cost of the daguerreotype in the middle of the 19th century and the reduced sitting time for the subject, though still much longer than now, led to a general rise in the popularity of portrait photography over painted portraiture.  The style of these early works reflected the technical challenges associated with long exposure times and the painterly aesthetic of the time. Hidden mother photography, in which portrait photographs featured young children’s mothers hidden in the frame to calm them and keep them still, arose from this difficulty. Subjects were generally seated against plain backgrounds and lit with the soft light of an overhead window and whatever else could be reflected with mirrors. Advances in photographic equipment and techniques developed, and gave photographers the ability to capture images with shorter exposure times and the making of portraits outside the studio.

Experimenting with portraits:

I experimented to take portrait photographs at school so i grabbed a camera from my class and went to the schools studio and my photography teacher was happy to help by being my model and this is what i came up with:

As you can see i crossed some pictures that are not worthy, the ones crossed with  blue color were too dark, the red ones were wrong timing and the green ones were out of focus.

Final outcomes:

This is my favorite one because the face expression of the model gave a lot of meaning to the photograph. in this photograph it was taken inside the schools studio using a trigger flash, in which a Bluetooth device is connected on the camera and as soon as the photograph is taken it triggers the flash light its connected to.  And as you can see only the front of his face is lighten meanwhile his sides are dark and that’s because the studio room was dark and the only light was the one pointed on his face.

 

This is also a good photograph with a good face expression and as you can see unlike the other photo only one side of his face is dark here and that’s because an extra studio light was added pointed to the side of his face.

 

 

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Uncategorized, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity + Place

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Mock January – Identity and Place

Identity –

The fact of being who or what a person or thing is.

Identity can be based on multiple factors. The person someone is today might not be what that person is tomorrow, we adapt and portray ourselves as how we want to be seen and it usually demonstrates aspects of who we are. For examples Identity can reflect on your upbringing, being religious, non religious, being foreign to being born within Europe, culture, family, hobbies, friends and life style choices, even your own appearance can reflect or be used to make you stick out from a crowd weather this being someones features or not its still there.  Regarding to the other theme of place. this can be seen as, what makes this place relatable to you as a person. The environment and colors also come into consideration, the questions asked when having a scenario places within the lines of identity means it has to voice what the model cannot speak in a photograph.

The model I have chosen is my brother, it links well with identity as its someone who I am close with and interact with on day to day basis. After having thought of quite a few different places to set my images out on I presumed that doing something related to sports would be quite a good idea. This to me struck like a good idea as part of his identity i.e. personality is the fact he is good at sports so I have based some of my experiments on places where you’d usually find an activity being performed .

Different types of Identity:

  • Social identity – The portion of an individual’s self concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group.
  • Cultural identity-  The feeling of belonging to a group, and culture is all the aspects that represents this individual for who they are and their background.
  • Geographical Identity – an individual’s sense of attachment to a region/country which they live in that also presents part of their personality and nationality
  • lack/Loss Identity- personal psychological conflict that involves confusion about ones role in society or the sense of loss in community.
  • Gender Identity-  a person’s perception of their own or other people’s roles based on their gender

Mood Board –

Action Plan:
  • who? Leandro
  • Where? Sports field
  • When? During the day- after schools- weekends
  • How?  Get pictures of my brother whilst he’s a at training or get him to go and kick a ball in a filed and get the images then

My idea is that ill capture my images, before, during and after the game and in general capture home life and how he dreams and thinks about football all the time .This being said i want the images to be presented as a story of the day in the life of someone who plays football.  However my images aren’t just going to be portrait based, i will include images like the football, the equipment, water bottle. For this idea i have chosen to look at a sports photography which also links into environmental portraits.

 

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Identity and Place : John Stezaker Case Study

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Born 1949 (age 69–70)

Worcester, England
Nationality British
Education Slade School of Art (London)
Known for Conceptual art

John Stezaker

Stezaker attended the Slade School of Art in London, artists to react against what was then the predominance of Pop art.

Solo exhibitions for Stezaker have been rare, however, in the mid-2000s, his work was rediscovered by the art market;he is now collected by several international collectors and museums.

His work is surreal in tone and is often made using collage and the appropriation of pre-existing images such as postcards, film stills, and publicity photographs. Art historian Julian Stallabrass said, “The contrast at the heart of these works [by Stezaker] is not between represented and real, but between the unknowing primitives of popular culture, and the conscious, ironic artist and viewer of post-modern images.”One work included in an exhibition at Salama-Caro Gallery, London, in 1991, depicted an image of a punch clock together with the caption “Why Spend Time on an Exhibition Like This?” Colin Gleadell wrote in The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Stezaker “is now being hailed as a major influence on the Young British Art movement,” in reference to Young British Artists.

Until 2006, Stezaker was Senior Tutor in Critical and Historical Studies at the Royal College of Art in London.

photomontage

Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image.
his work:
Image result for john stezaker photomontage
This photograph is so interesting, i like the idea how the background is black and white while the front photo is colored. and in the back are a man in the women as if they are dreaming about the place in the front photograph and they’re living in a dark pale place while the place they’re dreaming about is so colorful.
experimenting result:
this is my photo i made by taking a photograph i took of my two class colleagues in the schools studio with ring lights and adding another layer on top of it which presents the place they live in. the background is black and white while the front layer is colored to give meaning to the photograph. also the student’s diffrent face expressions give more meaning and makes the viewer wonder whats their exact reaction to the place they’re living in.
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MOCK- MY SECOND PHOTO SHOOT

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Planning my second shoot

For my second photo shoot, i am going to do an inspired Francesca Woodman photo shoot.

Image i was inspired by.. 

I have taken large inspiration from this image by Woodman. I really like the concept of this image, From my point of view, the model is showing to not know her self which is why she is purposely making her self blurred. She doesn’t want to be seen. The position she is in looks as if she is aiming for the floor implying that she is very relaxed.

This image shows factors of ‘loss of identity’ which is the subject i have decided to follow.

Plan

My overall plan for my shoot is to have one model, dressed in simple clothing ( black leggings and a black top) and for the model to experiment with hiding her identity while moving. Her face will act as her ‘identity’ and she will be playing with her hair/ using it to cover her face, jumping/moving, as well as covering different parts of her ‘identity’. I will allow the model to have freedom in what they are doing so that it adds a personal touch to the image and what she classes as ‘identity’. These images will be taken in a studio with a black white background to show simplicity and so that the model is the main focus of the image.  After taking the images i will edit them with a black and white edit so that there is a contrast between the model and background. I will use a manual camera setting for these pictures so that i can experiment with different white balances, depth of fields and shutter speeds.

The overall purpose of this shoot is to show the personal ‘ loss of identity’ in the model.

Aspects to include.. 

  • Studio lighting ( one point lighting)
  • Plain white background
  • Dressed simply ( all in black)
  • Model to have hair down
  • No props to be used
  • Manual setting
  • Experiment with slow and fast shutter speed
  • Edit to black and white
Contact sheets

Possible final outcomes

 

Editing final images

All photos below have been edited using Adobe Photoshop. I took inspiration of Woodman for my editing, i firstly edited all the images in black and white as well as editing the contrast, brightness and the levels of the image. Images below have been chosen due to them meeting the criteria of ‘ loss of identity’.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall final images from this photo shoot

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity And Place – Action Plan

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Who: I have decided that I’m going to focus on my brother for this section of my portrait project

What: I will be taking photos of various personal items of his which I believe represent his personality and the face he shows to the world. for this particular photo-shoot I will be photographing his car in the style of Zhao Xiaomeng’s photographs of the bikes of Beijing. For the second photo-shoot I will be photographing various smaller items relating to my brothers identity in order to fill the lower row of my typology.

Where: I will use a parking lot in town which is a placed on a demolished building, this left the outline of the walls on the other surrounding buildings which I believe creates a fitting background similar to those in Zhao’s photos. The second photo-shoot will be conducted on my gravel garden area for a grey background which still has some texture.

When: I will be taking the photos in the early evening The second photo-shoot will be taken during the afternoon.

Why: I like the idea of using possessions to show someones identity as it better conveys someones personality if they are normally a rather closed off person. Using possessions also allows me to better manipulate the subject in the images. I have chosen this time as it will give a good soft lighting for the images.