“Once you have a person in front of you that oozes this kind of energy, by dressing them up or allowing them to wear their own styles, the strength of their personality instantly comes out.” (Iordan 2015)

As Hassan Hajjaj says in the above quote, people’s styles and clothing play a substantial part in expressing their personality. And if you allow them to wear what they’re comfortable in their personality does instantly shine through. This also plays a large role in social identity; the way we dress affects both how we view ourselves, as well as how others view us, and possibly judge us on the way we dress. In this personal project I will focus on exploring social identity and how it is shown/expressed through fashion. I will do this mainly through portrait photography and more specifically full body shots; implementing the style of Hassan Hajjaj into my work. I will do this by trying to capture the subject’s personality and strengths through their style and body language, I will also implement the same contrasting bold colours into my work. I will also try break fashion stereotypes such as in Hassan Hajjaj’s ‘Kesh Angels’ portrait series where he photographs the Kesh Angles biker group who wear Hijabs and ride around the city, in most places in the area this is either looked down upon or illegal. I will also try implement close-up portraiture into this project, in the style of Rankin who heavily focuses on face and top 1/3 portraits. Rankin focuses a considerable amount on social identity throughout his work which I will take inspiration from in my project. This includes projects such as “Selfie Harm” (Hosie 2019) project; where Rankin took portraits of teens and gave them 15 minutes to edit their portraits to a ‘social media ready’ standard. I will also possibly include elements of tableaux photography in my project, I will try use this to help exaggerate the above mentioned themes through acting, in hopes of achieving an image which shows exaggerated levels of confidence, or the lack of it. I will use this to show the contrast of how fashion can affect us mentally.

Throughout my personal study I will explore specific fashion items which society views as valuable or desirable, as well as comparing them to fashion items which have been similarly desirable throughout history. It is very interesting to look at the most desirable fashion items throughout history as they have remained without change for the most part. In the Victorian period the most desirable fashion items were most commonly jewelry, and more specifically earrings, necklaces and rings. Some other desirable items for men included side chains; which were long and very detailed, usually reaching lengths of over 60 inches. When compared to modern desirable items they are extremely similar, with there still being a very high interest and demand for for jewelry such as necklaces and earrings. The only differences are a shift in rarity of rings (as much cheaper rings are available today, starting at prices of around £1-2) and the way chains are worn. Although they did exist in the 19th century as previously mentioned, they are worn in a different way in modern times, as well as having a different meaning to what they did throughout history. However, all of these items still have the same base purpose, to establish individuality and show class. This shows how society and its views have barely progressed in the last 200 years or so, as the same items are still used to show social status, and although this has slightly evolved, we still use the same methods to express our social identity. And in certain aspects this has become worse, because as a society with value what the society thinks of us drastically more and to the point where it is unhealthy; even causing people to self harm or commit suicide because they don’t achieve the standards set out for them.

• How social identity is shown through fashion/ how it has been shown throughout history

• Pop art movement

Bibliography:

Marina Iordan (July 15 2015) Karima: A Day In The Life Of A Henna Girl – Interview with Hassan Hajjaj Art Radar Dec 13 2019 https://artradarjournal.com/2015/07/15/karima-interview-with-hassan-hajjaj/

Rachel Hosie (Feb 5 2019) A photographer asked teenagers to edit their photos until they thought they looked ‘social media ready,’ and the results are shocking Insider: New York City https://www.insider.com/selfie-harm-photo-series-rankin-asks-teens-to-edit-photos-until-social-media-ready-2019-2 Dec 13 2019

To what extent does Surrealism create an unconscious representation of ones inner conflicts of identity and belonging?

“we are convinced that ‘it happened’- that the events they represent as real, that they actually took place” (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019: 18) Some images are literal, they are taken at the exact moment and capture an exact action but they is an extent to whether this is actually real life. A camera can only capture so much, it takes a segment of a situation, it doesn’t show the whole things. Unless we are the photographer, we never fully know what happened, we may come up with idea and concept, but they are only part of our imagination. My essay is focusing in on surrealism, which is the idea that the unconscious is where all imagination is held.  Surrealists believe the rational mind repressed the power to unlock our imagination. Therefore, in photography for an image to come under this genre it must be subtle in its meanings, it must make the viewer question ‘is this real?’ Claude Cahun is one artist I am going to discuss and explore how she expressed her identity through surrealism photography, around the time of 1920. She said herself that she does not have the answers to her questions, and as such unusually makes visible the rawness, torment, and distress of not knowing. To liberate the extent, I am going to use the surrealist Man Ray as I can argue that his work isn’t motivated my inner conflicts. “From Daguerre’s age to ours: photography has undergone a transformation, not only technologically but conceptually.” (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019: 18). Photography has progressed in our modern world and has grown alongside human knowledge to become more and more technical. As well as that ideas have progressed behind the motivation of capturing images. Nowadays, it doesn’t just have to be straight photography it can have a hidden meaning or enigmatic codes. There aren’t guidelines needed to be followed to create a meaningful photo. 

Question:

In what way are portraits by Paul Strand and Edward Steichen seen as examples of high-modernism.

Introduction:

“The process of manipulation starts as soon as we frame a person, a landscape, an object, or a scene with our cameras: we chose a portrait or landscape format”(Bright and van Erp.2019:18). This quote explores, how photographers want to set up a what they want to take an image, meaning they have different opportunities to explore, when they are doing a photo shoot.

I am going to explore how having a change of event in your childhood can change the way you have been brought up, and how you view your past. This interests me because it’s something which I can relate to and have experienced first hand. I will be investigating how portraiture was an integral part of Paul Strand and Edward Weston work and consider there position as exponent of modernist photography. I was also interested by the way they took the images, therefore I have decided to look at Modernism. I am going to take self portraits and use archival images, to explore my story.

Modernism started around the 1880’s, and focused on capturing the surrounding of what was going in everyday life. The early forms of photography was seen a a scientific tool, and it’s practical usage was in botany and archaeology. photography. New York became a hub for photographers in the 1910’s, due to its radical architecture, and mass population. Most modernist photographers fought that and tried to challenge the fact that photography didn’t rival painting. therefore by doing this they could see the potential for originality. Modernism also saw photographers take in mistakes they have made to create something new, they did this by cutting up, marking, or combining images together. This era also let photographers explore viewpoints as the number of hand held cameras increased they were able to explore different angles of taking images.

Paul Strand was instrumental in developing Straight Photography. He did this by experimenting with several techniques at a time. Strand became the first person to try out the candid camera technique “Driven to document his city with complete photographic objectivity, he created a means of shooting his subjects candidly. He worked out that by screwing in a false lens to one side of his camera pointing ahead while concealing the real lens under his arm facing his subjects” (AnOther, n.d.) . This meant that he could take images without people realizing what he was doing. One of his successful photos was of a blind street beggar in 1916. after this he developed a more interest in this type of photography, he then started to taking pictures in a lot more detail capturing every curve in the image. In the image above you can see a woman where she has a a sign saying Blind, the audience then can straight away tell that this woman cant see anything. you can also see that she is wearing a tag around her neck this shows us that she is a licensed beggar in New York. This image was taken in Black and white. It also captures the details on her face, the light is hitting off her forehead and she is look away from the camera, this shows that she is not aware that is is being photographed.

Edward Steichen is an American photography; his works were published in Alfred Stieglitz magazines he was also known for his fashion photography. In the image above you can see a picture of a woman who is known as Gloria Swanson, who was a famous silent movie star. In the image she is looking straight at the camera, you can also see that she is wearing a headband. The picture is taken in Monotone, over the image you can see a piece of fabric covering the photo identified as being lace, this was significant as Steichen merged the words of portraiture and fashion together. on the cloth you can see outlines of flowers and leafs. this could signify to us as a reader that. This image later was used to publicize the film Vanity Fair. Where this film actress was in. You can see in this portrait that the light is hitting her directly in the face. 

I feel that Portraits by Edward Steichen and Paul Strand are examples of high modernism, as they both look at different viewpoints, for example when Edward Steichen said “The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each to himself”, this signifies thats you have to explore your own history to understand yourself. This is what I was focusing on
to try and portray my childhood. In the image below, I have tried to recreate the famous image of Gloria Swanson where he has got lace on top of her face. For my recreation I used overlay to put on top of the image, by doing this I have been able to catch the emotion of the image, where Edward Steichen achieved. Also Edward Steichen also is a good example of high modernism as he made sure that when he took images they were precise, this is evident in his image of “George Washington bridge where he has got the Everything parallel to each other and it was taken in high clarity.

When Paul strand said ” Your photography is a record of living, for anyone who really sees”. I believe that this true, as everything you take images of goes in the history books for years to come people look back and will see what it was like in this time. The image below I have attempted to recreate what Paul Strand does when taking portraits. I have taken the image in a naturalistic surrounds, this was a trait of modernism, I have also turned the image into monotone as Paul strand’s images were all in black and white. Paul Strand also is a example of high modernism because he also took images in a very abstract way, for example when he took the image of “Wall Street”, in New York, where the photograph seemed to be done very precisely.

Edward Steichen and Paul Strand are very similar artists, in the way they take portraits however, they look at different styles of portrait types. They both include a lot of emotion in the photographs, meaning that the person viewing can connect to what they are trying to get across. I found that Paul Strand images that I looked at showed a lot of emotion and how people were in real life whereas with Edward Steichen images, I felt that the images showed emotion however in a different compared to Paul Strands, the images felt that that they showed emotion but he has done it so it is done through a different viewpoint. Modernism allowed photographers to achieve this. Both Photographers have strong connections between the subjects in the images.

Bibliography:

• Bright, S. and van Erp, H.(2019).Photography Decoded.London:Octupuss Publishing House.

Seiferle, R. and Stephenson, K. (2020). Modern Photography Overview. [online] The Art Story. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/movement/modern-photography/ [Accessed 9 Jan. 2020].

AnOther. (n.d.). How Paul Strand Paved the Way For Photographic Modernism. [online] Available at: https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/8482/how-paul-strand-paved-the-way-for-photographic-modernism [Accessed 13 Jan. 2020].

da Cunha Lewin, K. (2020). Edward Steichen Artworks & Famous Photography+. [online] The Art Story. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/steichen-edward/artworks/#pnt_6 [Accessed 3 Feb. 2020].

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/photography/a-z

1 -How does photographers Paul strand and Edward Weston use photography to explore modernism through portraits.

2- How does Realism present portrait photography in past and present

3- How has photographer Carole Benitah explored childhood memories through Identity?