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AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Lack and Loss of Identity

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Concealment of Identity through photography

Portraying the concealment of identity is a process that is essentially reliant upon editing techniques. While ideas surrounding the sense of preserving identity can be portrayed through a lens, Editing software such as adobe Photoshop can play a crucial role in bringing ideas to life. Methods such as blurring and pixelation can be applied to obscure the Identity of a person or an object for many reasons. The most common everyday reason is to preserve a persons identity in an occasion such as a Crime documentary or news report. it can also be used to portray a sense of loss of personality and lack of self knowledge.

Moodboard

Here are  a variety of Images I am taking inspiration from for this project. I have decided to have a mix of Pixelated, Blurred and distorted Images, with my main source of inspiration coming from crime documentaries, where witnesseses, victims and perpetrators alike have their identity concealed by an area of enlarged pixels or blurring in order to protect their identity and reduce the risk of any repercussive harm to them through the publishing of the documentary. In some instances, a strong back light can be utilised to give off an impression of a silhouette to further conceal the identity

Here are a few images that inspire my ideas

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AO2 Explore Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity and Place

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Definition of Identity 

Who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that make them different from others.

Definition of Gender Identity- Wiki

Gender identity is the personal sense of one’s own gender.  Gender identity can link to set gender at birth, or can be the complete opposite.  All societies have a set of gender categories. In most societies, there is a basic division between gender attributes assigned to males and females, a gender binary to which most people adhere and which includes expectations of masculinity and femininity in all aspects of sex and gender. biological sex, gender identity, and gender expression. Some people do not identify with some, or all, of the aspects of gender assigned to their biological sex.

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Definition of Social Identity- Wiki

 Social identity is the portion of an individual’s self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group.

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Definition of Political Identity- Wiki

 Political positions based on the interests and perspectives of social groups with which people identify.

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Definition of Cultural Identity- Wiki

Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is part of a person’s self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture.

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Definition of Geographical/ National Identity- Wiki

National identity is a person’s identity or sense of belonging to one state or to one nation. It is the sense of a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, language and politics.

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   Definition of Lack of /Loss of Identity

1. Personal psycho social conflict especially in adolescence that involves confusion about one’s social role and often a sense of loss of continuity to one’s personality

2. A state of confusion in an institution or organization regarding its nature or direction

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Mood bored:

 

Lorna Simpson

Lorna Simpson born 13th August 1960 is an African-American photographer who came most popular around the 1980s and 1990s with artwork such as Guarded Conditions and Square Deal. Her work as been displayed in multiple exhibitions all around the world and is most famous for her photo text installations, photo collages and films. Simpson first came to prominence in the 1980s for her large-scale works that combined photography and text and defied traditional conceptions of sex, identity, race, culture, history, and memory. Lorna Simpson received her BFA  in Photography from the school of visual arts in new York then followed by  getting her MFA from the university of California. Lorna Simpson always looked into the idea of challenging the norm and what she believed that society expected. Going into depth about identity and exploring how people really feel about themselves and how one might want to portray themselves.

She started off taking photographs of things she saw around her- but soon realized  that she wanted to focus more directly to explore the ideas and issues she felt strongly about. so she began to take carefully posed images in her studio. to really branch out she began looking into the idea of added words or other images alongside the photographs she could express even more powerfully feelings and was then able to leave her images up for interpretation.

Some of Lorna Simpson’s work:

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Lorna Simpson
Five Day Forecast 1991

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

Initial Photoshoot – Place

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For an individual, the people they spend time with impacts how they evolve as a person. These people can influence their future both negatively and positively. The most influential people in MY life are my family and close friends. My small community helps me navigate through life with support with double the enjoyment of each others company. 

To respond to the stimuli of ‘Identity and Place’, I have photographed moments of which i’m with family and friends to capture that memory and moment. 

Analysis

Within these images I used natural light when available, however in the images taken in the evening, i used flash for them. This is due to me wanting to capture as much detail as possible without over exposing my images. 

 

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Case Study – Xavier Ribas

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Xavier Ribas

 

Xavier Ribas is a photographer, senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, and visiting lecturer at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. He studied Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona and Documentary Photography at the Newport School of Art and Design. His photographic work investigates contested sites, histories and memories. His earlier works looked at peripheral spaces and geographies of abandonment in photographic series such as Sundays (1998), Sanctuary (1998-2002)and Habitus (2007). His recent works grouped under the title of Concrete Geographies (2003-2009) take the form of large photographic grids, looking at temporary settlements, sites of corporate urban development and exclusion, and border territories.

Ribas has been involved in many international exhibitions and his work is represented in major public and private collections. He has received awards, commissions and fellowships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2012-2015), the International Photography Research Network (2006), Commande Publique du Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Centre National des Arts Plastiques (2006), among others. 

I wanted to use his work for my interspersion because i like the idea of the identity of a place can change due to abandonment. The color pallet of his images are very interesting he uses muted tones to give the effect of life being lost in abandonment. His work appeals to me because it almost paints abandonment in a more beautiful way because its not just dark and dingy, it shows how life can circulate around the unwanted and grow upon it to create beautiful images
AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity and place introduction

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Identity and place

I would describe identity as being a person’s personality and character, but i can also involve a person’s gender,geographical location, political views and social standing. Identity also encompasses one’s culture and this can be influenced depending on someone’s social or geographical location, or their place. 

 

Mind map

Mood Board

Not my images.
AO2 Explore Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 2 Portrait

Zhao Xiaomeng/ Rita Puig Serra Costa – Case Study (Possessions)

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I chose to study Rita due to the sense of identity in her portraits of still life items. While there is no human subject in the photo, it is still structured like a traditional portrait allowing the photos to tell a story behind the object while leaving an air of ambiguity around the photos.

As far as technical aspects of the images go, they are structured like a typical portrait with soft lighting to avoid harsh shadows and a typically larger aperture to allow for a narrow depth of field while still allowing for a wide DoF in wider shots. She also appears to use a slower shutter speed due to the strong contrast and colors in the photos. The subjects in most of her photos are centralized in the image creating a fell of importance to the subjects. It looks as though her images could made using film due to the slight grain and Gaussian blur. The lower images seems to be exhibiting bokeh as well also suggesting that this is taken on film.

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Images Sampled from Rita’s Book ‘Where Mimosa Bloom’

I like the idea of taking a portrait of a statue as it allows for exploration of traditional portraiture techniques while still sticking with the idea of still life portraiture and I believe that the broken statue can tell a much more powerful story than a traditional portrait.

Zhao Xiaomeng took many photographs of abandoned bikes scattered across the streets of Beijing. I personally like how much about someones personality you can tell from the scattered bikes, they all have various adjustments and additions made to make the previous owners life just a little bit easier. I like the compositions of the images as I like how somewhat abstract still life photography is being framed as though it is a traditional portrait, with rather blank backgrounds to allow the subject to strongly contrast it. Most of the subjects have some strong color either from the weathered paint or the rust patina. It looks as though he has used a small aperture due to the wide depth of field, as a consequence of this I believe that the photos were taken using a long shutter speed and low ISO due to the amount of detail captured in the photos. The photos are rather de-saturated but still show color depth.

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

Identity and Place – Post 5 (Editing)

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Masked Portraits

Editing Process:

1. Original image opened in Adobe Photoshop.

2. First I used the “curves” to change the tonality of the image and to create highlights, low lights and increase contrast.

3. I then used the “black & white” feature to take the colour out of the image and cause the mask to stand out from the black hoodie and darker grey background.

4. I then added a tint from the colour library in the “black & white” menu to add subtle tint to the image

5. I repeated step 2, adjusting the curves after having set the image to black and white to ensure the image had slightly more extreme levels of contrast than I wanted.

6. Finally, I used the “brightness/contrast” function to actually decrease the “contrast” as i found this resulted in the shadows on the mask being smoother.

7. I repeated these steps for all 4 of my final images from this shoot.

Final Edits:

Edited Portraits

Editing Process:

1. Original image opened in Adobe Photoshop.

2. I began with the “spot healing brush tool” in order to clear the skin of any blemishes or marks.

3. Then I used the “blur tool” in order to minimise pores and smooth out the skin to make hiding features easier.

4. I selected the “lasso tool” and cut out a smooth area of the face with minimal amounts of colour differences so the cut out area is not noticable after blending.

5. Using “ctrl+J” and “ctrl+T” I resized and re-positioned the cut out area over the mouth. Then selecting “flatten image” to allow me to start blending out the border between the image and the cut out

6. Using a combination of “spot healing brush tool“, “healing brush tool” and “blur tool” I blended the cut out area in with the image to create a face without a mouth or noticeable editing lines or patches.

7. I then repeated steps 4-6 to cover the nose.

8. I selected the “black & white” feature, increasing the brightness of reds to create a paler complexion and help separate the face from the black background.

9. Finally I used the “sharpen tool” on the eyes to cause them to stand out more and bring the face together.

Final Edits:

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

Identity and Place – Post 4.b (Photoshoots – Edited Portraits)

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Action Plan:

  • Use the single point lighting of a light box to cast soft light on subjects face.
  • Alter position of light box to give different effects on the subject’s face (eg. chiaroscuro).
  • Take photos of subject under different lighting.
  • Select well composed and focused images that show off the combination of the subjects face complementary to the light used.
  • Select best images based on editing plans.
  • Edit images.

My Response: Best Images: