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

For my ‘final ideas’ photo shoot, I wanted to piece together all of my ideas together i did this by deciding to do self portraits because it meant I could portray the ideas I wanted to get across from personal experience. I also did this so that the wrong message wasn’t put across. 

As my setting I used a shower (which represents being isolated from the outside world – a safe place) and for my more basic portraits I used a basic set up of a black cloth, a tripod and a 10 second camera timer. This all together reflected my idea of inner emotions escaping my mind.