THE SHOOT 

For the shoot itself I used a canon camera with a standard lens, this is so I had a range of zoom that I wouldn’t of had if I was using a portrait lens. The standard lens made the shoot less stressful. I used the ring light as my main source of light, I used this light because it is a strong powerful white light, but doesn’t create harsh shadows on the models face. The ring light also had a dimmer on it, this allowed me to control how strong the light was.  I made sure the background of my images was white as it makes Erin stand out. I

I had my camera settings on 1/200 shutter speed and and ISO of 200, these settings where perfect for my photos as they were sharp and powerful. I could adjust the focus by using the focus lens at the end of my camera lens.

Like any shoot I had difficulties, they included making sure the light was at the right angle to create the silhouette around my individual and ti highlight certain areas of her face that I needed to be bright and exaggerated. Another difficulty I had was making sure the settings were correct, I had to take many test photos, this enabled me to adjust my settings as I knew what needed to be changed, in order to get the effect I wanted.

SELECTION PROCESS

Image 1 selection; (before she changes herself) 

Image 2 selection; (beginning the change)

Image 3 selection; (step one in the change)

Image 4 selection; (zoom in on the eyes)

Image 5 selection; (changing her hairstyle)

Image 6 selection; (adding on another layer to cover herself up)

Image 7 selection; (adding more)

Image 8 selection; (before she changes her outfit, which shows her personality)

Image 9 selection; (the final look)

PLANNING FOR MY SHOOT;

What is included and who is involved?

A series of 9 images of Erin getting ready to take a photo of her self, this will show how a modern day girl changes her identity to fit society and to blend in with everyone else around her and to show the parts of herself she wants people to know about her even if it isn’t true.

When and where is the shoot happening?

25th January in the studio. I chose to do the shoot in the studio as the blank background will really allow me to focus on Erin and the concept of the shoot, also I can adjust the lighting in the room with the lights, by making it brighter or darker and the angle of the lights, this is so I can highlight certain areas that I want a dramatic focus on.

Why am I planning the shoot and what does it connect to?

These photos connect to identity. I am showing the loss of identity to the younger generation and how we change ourselves to make us fit in. This is producing a society where we are all the same and nothing tells us apart for each other anymore because no one it willing to experiment with their look and they don’t want people knowing certain things about them so they hide it all by copying everyone else.

Technical approach; 

I am going to use a standard lens during this shoot as is allows me to have a wider range of zoom than a portrait lens would. Whilst using a standard lens the camera will be on a manual setting, this is so I can adjust what I have in and out of focus so I can highlight certain areas within the photo.  For the lighting of the image I am going to have a light facing straight onto my models face, as the light will highlight her features and create attention to her.  

As I am doing a set of 9 different images, showing how Erin changes herself to fit society’s ‘norms’. I want each image to show a different step, this will enable people to see the changes she goes through. Image 1 will be Erin being herself, this is the before she alters herself and then Image 9 will be the final look that she’s has created for herself that she knows as the norm.

RESEARCH

Femininity is a set or attributes, behaviours and roles associated with girls and women. Femininity is socially constructed, made up of socially defined and biologically created factors. Traits of a women traditionally include, gentleness and sensitivity. The appearance of women are traditionally long flowing hair, perfect skin and a narrow waist. Hyperfemininty is the exaggeration of stereotyped behaviour of women. This is where the qualities that are believed to be feminine are exaggerated. Gender roles play a huge part in how women are ‘meant to be’ as society expects women to act and dress in certain ways, this leads to women changing who they are, so they can fit in to the social ‘norms’. Even in different ethnic groups, they have certain role expectations, but for women they aren’t that different.

In the 21st century it is critical that you are physically attractive, this can be achieved by make up or procedures. This results in women spending more time, effort and money on their appearance, this is because it has been socially learned from the female image. A thought experiment is that if children were introduced into a world where physical appearance was unimportant, they wouldn’t care about how they looked or how anyone else looked. As children are now introduced into a society where looks and appearance is everything, they are pressured to make themselves look like everyone else. Females spend an average of $700 a year on clothes before entering their older age. As women increase in earning power and social status their interest in physical appearance will increase even more. A study shows that half of girls feel stifled by gender stereotyping, as they are to believe that they are valued more for their appearance.

There are four types of gender stereotyping affecting women, which include; personality traits, domestic behaviour, occupations and physical appearance. Personality traits for females include in them being emotional and accommodating. Domestic behaviours such as taking care of children, to cook and clean are expected by women. Occupations such as a teacher or a nurse are assumed to be done by females. Finally, physical appearance is the main stereotyping that females are affected by, as they are expected to be thin, graceful and pretty looking, even if this involves in them changing who they are to feel like they fit in. If society didn’t have these brutal expectations for women, women wouldn’t feel the need to change who they are as they would feel comfortable and accepted in their own skin.

LEIGH BOWERY 

Bowery was born 26 March 1961, he was an Australian performance artist, club promoter and fashion designer. He was mainly known for his bold and interesting looking costumes and makeup in his images. He was mainly based in London during his adult life and inspired many artists, such as Lucian Freud who was a British painter. Bowery states that ‘fashion, where all girls have clear skin, blue eyes, blonde-brown wavy hair and a size 10 figure…STINKS’. He really exaggerated and almost took the mick out of models, applying all the makeup to himself to make himself ‘look like’ the typical model was a big statement in itself, as you can understand what Bowery’s concept of his images are, that girls are expected to have perfect features and alter themselves but it just makes them look stupid and that they should learn to love themselves.

Leigh Bowery over exaggerates the appearance of genders and how they are meant to look to look due to the ‘norms’ made by society. The reasons behind his exaggerations, is to present how ridiculous it is to apply so much ‘cover’ to yourself to hide the real you.

I’m choosing Leigh Bowery as my lead artist as I love the way that he exaggerates his makeup and costumes to show hoe ridiculous it is to change yourself to fit the ‘norms’, also his facial expressions show his emotions and it is a contrast between look and emotions. My favorite images by Bowery are;the boldness of the lips and the outfit choices and props used makes this image stand out to me as it is so unique. I feel like Bowery’s concept of this image is to show the boldness and extremes that people will go to, to make themselves look a certain way

EXPLORING TABLEAUX/STAGED REALITY PART 2

In this part of the project I focused mainly on staged reality, as I was re creating these paintings

These 3 images are the ones we chose as a class to explore as they were some of our favorites. We chose these images due to the different angles of lighting within the images and the angle the photo has been taken from. The meaning behind these images is strong.

Eugene Delacroix ‘Leading the People’

Carravagio ‘Deposition’

David La Chapelle ‘The Last Supper’

MY RESPONSE; 

When taking these photos, we had an allocated director, photographer and lighting person, along with the cast of the image. The director was there to order the photo, in order to get out image as close to the one we were copying. It took many tries to get a good image because there was many people to order and the lighting had to be perfect, along with the photographer getting their settings correct to make sure the photo looked sharp and clean.

This photo is my favorite response from experimenting with Caravaggio’s photo ‘Deposition’. As I feel that the characters are in the right place and the image is sharp. We added our own twist on this image, by dressing the person being held in a gorilla suit, just to make it more creative and give it our own feel. 

When photographing the ‘Leading the People’ by Eugene Delacriox, we struggled getting the lighting in the right places to highlight the right parts of the image. I chose to show these two images from this shoot, because the first one has the lighting in the right place, but the whole frame wasn’t shot. Whereas in the second photo you can see the whole frame with acceptance of the flooring slighting in the photo, but that could easily be edited out. 

The final shoot we did was to reenact the image by David La Chapelle, ‘The Last Supper’. When photographing this image I was in charge of the lighting, I had to have a light in front of the set up and also one from behind to create the type of lighting that was created in the original.

EVALUATION

During this second part of investigating tableaux/staged reality we had to set up the people as they photo had theirs set up, we also had to get the correct lighting to make the photo look something like the original. I found staged reality very difficult because, I like being able to have freedom to change things and set things how I want, whereas in this part we had to follow an image. In staged reality and tableaux there isn’t room for you to do what you like and have the ability to be creative. It was frustrating as it took a while to get characters in the right place and then along with the lighting, it was too boring.

When using the studio to take portraits there are 4 types of light you can use; red-head (soft/harsh light), ring light, spot light and flash light. I experimented with all types of lighting and came to a conclusion that I prefer flash lighting and lighting formed by red-head lights.

CHIAROSCURO – USING HARSH & SOFT LIGHT

Chiaroscuro is an Italian term for ‘light-dark’ Artists who are well-known for the use of chiaroscuro are Leonardo De Vinci, who gave vivid impression of three-dimensional figures. The effect started off in paintings and photographers slowly got inspired by the effect and brought it to photography. The ‘Mona Lisa’ is a prime example of the chiaroscuro effect.

When experimenting with the chiaroscuro affect, I mainly had to focus on the contrast of light and dark, these types of photo give off a sense of volume and boldness through the photo. The image tends to have one side of the face lighten up by a studio light, which tends to be harsh to the face, which then causes the other half of the face to hide in shadow. Here are a few examples of chiaroscuro portraits.

MY RESPONSE

EVALUATION

To get this style of photo I shined a soft light, to the side of the girls face and I used a black background so the chiaroscuro effect would be more defined and bold. I took these photos using a manual setting, I had the shutter speed at 1/200, this is so the camera wouldn’t take in all the light that was available and I had the ISO on 100 so the camera wasn’t too sensitive too light, otherwise my images would’ve been over exposed and too white. I feel that using a stronger more harsh light shows the chiaroscuro effect more. The strong light creates a bold shadow on the other half of the face making you focus in on the side that is lit up and in center focus on the image.

RING LIGHITING 

Ring lighting allowed me to really focus on the detail of facial features. I could sit the camera in the middle of the ring, which allowed me to get stability so my photo wouldn’t be blurry and I could get the persons face in the center of the image.

The ring light could be adjusted by a dimmer, making a stronger or weaker light. I prefers the stronger light as it made a more powerful image. When photographing using the ring light, I again used manual focus, had my ISO on 100 so the camera wouldn’t be to sensitive to the bright light and my shutter speed on 1/400, this allowed me to get a sharp image that wasn’t over exposed due to the lighting. Here are a few results of using ring lighting;

EVALUATION

This type of lighting is one of my preferred because it highlights the area you want to focus on. The strong lighting creates a soft tone on the skin. With the white background it makes the subjects pop and become the center of focus. Ring lighting can be used in many different ways, to get your concept across to the viewers, these images where just experimental for the next time I shoot with a concept. The images have a sharp focus to them, that is clear for viewers to understand what is in the image.

FLASH LIGHTING

Flash lightening tends to be used when photographers take school photos, or family portraits. 

This light is covered by a cover to make the flash softer on the skin when the image is taken. A device is put on top of your camera and then is connected to the light, which controls the flash, so that when you press down the capture button it sets of a flash so that the subject is captured in a sharp light.  Some of the images I produce with this lighting are; 

EVALUATION

This lighting allows you to capture your image how you want it. It creates a soft tone throughout the image and with the white background it makes the images look sharp and fresh. This type of lighting is my favorite.

FINAL IMAGES

These images are my favorites out over the 3 shoots I have done in the studio using different types of lighting. With experimenting with the different types of lighting and how to adjust my camera to the different lighting I feel I can now apply it to when I am photographing in the studio again but next time having a concept behind my images can make them more connectable to the viewers.

BIOGRAPHY 

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer who’s photographs helped develop photojournalism as an art form. He was born August 22, 1908. As a pioneer in photojournalism he wandered around the world with his camera and became buried in his environments.  He was educated in Paris and he developed an early love of literature and the arts. He then went onto further education to Cambridge University to further himself in art and literature courses. He attended the army, then traveled to Africa to hunt but he eventually became board of this. But Africa brought on a different interest of photography. Bresson then moved back to Paris and continued his path down photography and he believed that all edits shout be done when the image is made. He used small cameras as they were easier to handle. Henri Cartier-Bresson is considered one of the major artists of the 20th century.

MOODBOARD

This moodboard is presenting images by Bresson with a mixture of emotions and moods through out it. They are also a handful of my favourite images by him as they speak loudly to the viewer and the way he has photographed the subject it vet interesting and it makes you think and wonder why he has done it like that.

IMAGE ANALYSIS

EMOTIONAL RESPONSE;

When I initially looked at this image I felt sadness because of the conditions the children where in. But I looked at it over and over again to understand the image and then there was a mixture of emotions, such as happiness because the children are smiling and are having fun with each other and are creating their own fun despite their surroundings. A sense of confusion to why they where in such rough conditions and what had happened there.

TECHNICAL;

He has used the natural lighting in this image to help him get the real effect, along with maybe using a wide lens (portrait lens) so he could get more of the background into the photo to create a deeper depth of field. The image looks slightly over exposed so he may have used a slower shutter speed to let more light into the image.

VISUAL;

There are scatters of children behind a wall that has a cut out in it. The children are together or in smaller groups playing along with each other all looking happy. There is rubble on the floor which suggests that their homes may have been destroyed through a natural disaster. The children are dressed in poor clothing. The child at the front of the image is injured which suggests conflict and pain within this environment.

CONCEPT;

I believe the reasoning behind this image is that Bresson wanted to show everyone what other parts of the world were like and to show how their is positive feelings still running through strong despite to pain they are going through.

BRESSON’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE MAGNUM

The magnum is an international photographic cooperative owned by photographers such as Bresson. It was set up to share human quality and the cursorily of what was happening around the world. Bresson’s relationship with the magnum was that he was the co-founder if it, his ideas and images with so many different stories behind them to be shown to the public eye to help them understand different situations around the world.

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON & TONY RAY-JONES

Tony Ray-Jones

The emotional response I get from this photo is hopelessness because they are all crowed under small umbrellas and they’re sitting down sluggishly looking hopeless.  In this photo there are multiple people, there are 5 people in the front of the photo which are the main subjects of this image. Three of them are sat down huddling under one umbrella, to the left of the photo there is an older women standing with a plastic bag over her head along with her holding an umbrella over herself. It looks like they are near a beach due to the sand looking floor at the bottom of the photo. They have cups and glasses to the left of them as well. Jones was an English photographer and a husband of a princess. He wanted to capture the spirit and mentality of the English, their habits and their way of life. This image is showing what the English women do together and the weather of the image adds to the British feel of it.

Bresson and Jones take similar photos with similar meaning as they photograph people doing their everyday tasks. This photo is showing a group of people sat on a bank looking at the view. As Bresson traveled the world this could be showing a way another culture lives in the world and educating people.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Street photography is also known as candid photography but they are very different. Street photography feature unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Street photography doesn’t have to have a street present within it or even an urban environment. It can focus on people and their behaviors in public, it is similar to social documentary as you are capturing people in their natural state. A street photographer can be seen as an extension of the flâneur. A  flâneur is a french noun that is an act of strolling with all of its accompanying associations. It is to “wander with no purpose”.

Examples of street photography;

CANDID PHOTOGRAPHY

Candid photography is a photo captured without creasing a posed appearance. Photos like these can be achieved in many ways such as, when the subject is moving, avoiding prior preparation with the subject, by surprising the subject or by not being a distraction to the subject during the process of taking the photos. The photographer has to work with the lighting they are presented with and the environment they are in.  When taking a candid photo camera are normally quite small and black as it avoids disturbing the subject.

Here are examples of candid photography;

BRUCE GILDEN 

Bruce Gilden is a well known American street photographer who captured close ups of people on the streets of New York. Gilden didn’t care if he annoyed people out on the street whilst taking his photos, he had the confidence to take a photo and carry on with his day even if he had to deal with conflict from the people in his photos. He used flash whilst taking these photos, to really help capture the detail and facial expression of his subject. His images are also in black and white which really draws attention to the subjects facial expressions and what they look like. Gilden photographed a variety of different people to show the type of people around New York. Here are a few of his photos that I enjoyed looking at;

IMAGES FROM MY EXPERIMENTATION WITH STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

I didn’t enjoy street photography as I found it awkward and uncomfortable of taking candid photos of strangers. Also when taking most of my photos I struggled to get the sharp focused images, so most of my images where blurry, along with either too dark or over exposed. This experiment gave me a feel of a different type of genre of photography and has taught me different techniques.

MY FINAL IMAGE

EVALUATION

Taking street photography was very nerve-raking as you had to take photos of strangers, and some of them may have not wanted you too. The struggles I had during this shoot as trying to get steady images that were in focus and sharp ,whilst maintaining the correct settings, this was hard as I was always on the go, quickly trying to snap something before the moment was too late. I found street photography pressurizing but it was lots of fun.