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.
For my final piece, I am focusing on ‘Mental Identity’: inner state of identity. I will focus more on how behind closed doors, no one knows how they truly impact someone else and the effect on their emotions.
Artist References
Gabriella Mendez
I admire Mendez’ work due to her perspective and imagination shrouding colours complimenting skin tones. She also uses stickers, projections and objects to portray her ideas of fashion and culture. I really admired her idea of using appliques and drawings on faces to reflect a certain idea.
Analysis
VISUAL
Mendez’ work often displays a colourful background with one/two people as the centre focus. In these images she has used bold solid coloured back drops, she then correlates the costume and make up with this colour scheme. With the photo on the left Mendez has correlated the eye and foliage make up to the off-mustard background, then has a contrasting top on the model to vary where the eye’s attention else where. Within the picture on the left however Mendez has made it so that the models foliage and top to contrast the background. This collectively draws the direct attention to the models neutral face in contrast to the boldly coloured extras.
TECHNICAL
In order to create this image Mendez has used a warm toned soft box light so that light isn’t direct, its even dispersed within the studio. During the editing process she has increased the images saturation and contrast to make the image soft and not harsh with lots of colours happening.
Francesca Woodman
Francesca Stern Woodman was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models. Many of her photographs show women, naked or clothed, blurred, merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured.
What I admire about Woodman’s work is how she uses her self as the centre focus: she uses her self to reflect her feelings towards her belonging and how she felt about not feeling like the standard person. I originally used this idea to project my emotions and thoughts about myself not fitting into the mold everyone around me has created for me.
Analysis
VISUAL
Within this composition, Woodman has used her body to curve around the wall, she is peaking around the corner at her reflection (given off by a mirror on the floor). This in my opinion gives the feeling of searching, and in Woodman’s case searching for herself. This self portrait is set within a decaying empty room with once painted white walls and hard concrete floors. This contrast between her body and the harsh man made structures reflects her innocent self against the harsh world.
TECHNICAL
In order to create lighting in this image, Woodman has used the natural lighting from an unseen window. This light then hits the concrete floor and potentially bounces off the mirror this creates a ‘spotlight’ feel to where Woodman is placed, this is due to the foreground and background corners are unlit. This draws attention to woodman and her reflection.
By utilizing both these artists’ views and my own, I wish to create compositions that reflect my sense of not fitting into the world I was brought into. I aim to show how our inner thoughts cannot be contained once alone. Either through feelings or none at all, the pain of not knowing where to go is the closest rival to death. This all relates down to the epicentre of all of our problems: wanting perfection. In the ideal world, perfection doesn’t exist, we would aim to reach our own maximum capacity, not to correlate with numbers and code.
“Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
For my response I wanted to explore with fashion and culture. I wanted to show how people express their identities through clothes. I also wanted to explore the fashion trends at the moment, especially over-sized and “unflattering” clothing pieces.
For my first photo shoot I am going to be looking more at casual everyday clothing (in a sense). I will be pairing everyday conventional pieces of clothing and making them more high fashion and runway worthy. I will also be doing the models makeup and hair.
For my second photo shoot I am going to be looking into more sophisticated, elegant and chic pieces of clothing.
1st Photo Shoot
Contact Sheet:
Final Photos:
Needed to edit exposure in Photoshop.
Needed to edit exposure in Photoshop as it is too under exposed.
Needed to sharpen this photo in Photoshop.
This was too over exposed so I knew I needed to edit the exposure in Photoshop.
Final Photos (Edited):
I am really happy with how these edited photos came out. I think I captured the essence of Kiki’s photos really well and I think it shows off my camera skills very well. Overall I’m satisfied as it shows the message I was trying to portray.
Second Photo Shoot:
Contact Sheet:
Final Images (Unedited):
Final Images (Edited):
For these edited photos, I decided to get ride of most of the background and just make it plain so the focus is more on the models than the background.
Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of this photo shoot as I feel I was able to capture the images that I wanted to, but, I think I will need to edit better next time as it is a little plain.
Steinberg captured people with paper bags over there face, hiding and disguising their identity. On the paper bags there are shapes creating a cartoon style face. When someone looses their identity they tend to hide their emotions with fake ones, the paper bag acts metaphorically to show the fake emotions that a person is likely to present when they loose their identity, which presents the conceptual elements within this photographic series. Technically speaking the models are located in the centre of the frame, allowing them to be the main focus point. The background is used to present the background of the person, the type of people they are. In this case they seem rich due to the posh fireplace and large amount of space surrounding them. The photograph is presented in black and white which allows the image to be high in tonal contrast allowing details to be shown clearer. Space, tone and texture are the main formal elements which are being presented within this image. They are all presented through the background and the model, which all add the effect of loosing an identity. The camera settings when taking these images where precise, the ISO seems to be slightly high as there seems to be an intended noise, this also contextually shows the time period (1962) that these images were captured in. The shutter speed seems to be quick as there is no intended blur, moreover there is a large depth of field due to the whole frame being in focus. This photograph presents cold artificial lighting, which adds to the depressing and sinister tone which Steinberg is creating around the idea of someone loosing their identity and trying to be someone whom they aren’t. Contextually, Steinberg wanted to show that everyone is society ‘wears a mask’ to hide the true identity, whether it is metaphorically or physically, through makeup. He said that this was because it acted as “a protection against revelation.”. Applying this to loss of identity, it shows how when people loose their identity they try and pretend to be someone they are not, so people do not find out what they are going through. To apply this contextual idea to this image the paper bags are suggesting that because these people are rich they have to act rude and snobby towards others due to the class system.
Based on this artist research I want to conduct a study where I look at capturing my model disguising their identity. In order to present a stronger relationship between the artist and loss of identity, I intended to use plain white masks and plain simplistic background, so no identity is built around the background of the model. Moreover, I intended to use a similar soft cold lighting in order to create a depressing tone to my work. In order for more inspiration with the use of masks and paper bags, to disguise and present the idea that my model has lost their identity and pretending that they are okay, I intended to conduct visual inspiration through a mood board, were further interests surrounding this topic can be presented.
Mood Board Of Other Artists Work With Masks
While exploring further into mask photography, I got a glimpse of the idea of surrealism with masks. Within this I saw a thin white material like a bed sheet around the head of the model, which takes the viewer away from naturalistic photographs. This presents loss of identity as it shows that there is nothing left when you lose your identity, the white sheet presents metaphorically that the person who loses their identity is left with emptiness. This is an aspect which I think could inspire my photoshoot of masks
Another aspect which present clear ideas is the use of a blank white mask. These masks can be considered eerie and scary, which can present the emotions that a person feels when they loose their identity. Moreover, the mask physically covers the face of the model which shows the loss of their identity.
By conducting this further research of mask photography I have clear ideas and visions that I want to bring forward to my photoshoot which will be inspired by Steinberg’s use of paper bags/masks.
For my identity project into the influence that adults have on the development of children’s identity, I have decided to take inspiration from the work of Tish Murtha, a social documentary photographer who worked in Britain. she is was best known for documenting more marginalized communities, such as the working class in the North East of England.
Her photography is documentary style, and often uses candid photography in order to truly show a true to life representation of the life, struggles and social workings of the groups she photographed. Examples of her work can be seen below:
Her work often shows the raw emotion on the faces of her subjects, allowing for the identity of the subjects to be presented through their emotions, feelings and reactions to their present situations.
Murtha uses her photography to inject personality into the individuals who are often simply stereotyped and grouped into certain groups of people. Her photography gives individual personalities to the people who are often shun by society due to their social class, position in society, age, gender or job.
Murtha produced exhibitions such as Youth Unemployed (1981), Elswick Kids (1978) and Juvenile Jazz Bands (1979), which showed the struggles of children living in the lower bands of society during the 70’s and 80’s, using photography to display real life issues such as poverty, unemployment, conflict and a lack of individual identity within the children of the working class.
Through her photography, Murtha raised important issues about society with the public, as her work depicted the struggles of the working class, and the social issues they face, which the viewer can then compare to the issues they themselves face.
Murtha, born in South Shields in the North East of England, was accustomed to the poverty and deprivation that was common in the area. Her work focused a lot of attention to proving that, although the subjects in the photographs often look care-free and happy, the environment in which they live is often poverty-stricken, run down, and appears to lack any outside help in order to make it safe and appropriate for living in.
The above image was taken by Murtha as part of her Youth Unemployment exhibition. This image uses the shock factor of the young boy holding a cigarette so nonchalantly in his mouth, in order to draw the attention of the viewer, before allowing them to understand the underlying meaning. This image portrays the children in a situation (playing cards and smoking cigarettes) that would normally be associated with adult behavior. Here, Murtha is commenting on the fact that a deprived environment often forces children to grow up faster than they should, and the situation they are placed in (poverty) influences them to take the identity of the adults around them.
The above image is an example of where Murtha took close up head-shots of individuals living in the run down areas of Newcastle. Murtha incorporated elements of both candid and posed photography. The above image focuses on the appearance of the subject in the foreground, who appears to come from a poorer, lower class background. While the subject appears to be from a less privileged background, his facial expression does not convey negative emotions, rather he seems distracted by something interesting.
This image by Murtha really conveys the theme that all of her work follows. The young girl in the image is seen jumping on an abandoned car, a dangerous activity in a hazardous run down area that now days, would violate health and safety regulations immediately. However, the context of the image indicates that the subjects are actually enjoying this activity, with the subject in the background moving to stand back on the car roof (presumably after already jumping off). Here, Murtha is able to covey that, even among the deprivation and poverty, children still adapt to their environment and create fun out of seemingly dangerous or boring situations.
I have had a go at editing some of the images I have taken in the past that I may use as final pieces or to help inspire me and show me some of the styles I could use for my final pieces.
On this image I started by using the cropping tool so that I could easily focus on the main point of the image which was the person.
After this I used the black and white option that can be found under – Image > Adjustments > Black and White in Photoshop. I have tried using this with a few of my images because the photographers I have looked at in my case studies all started in black and white.
I have then used the Brightness and Contrast option. I have tried not to use this excessively. I used it to make the darker areas in the image darker to make the person stand out more especially since his hair has come out dark.
This is the final outcome from the small amount of editing I have done on the image. I like how the image has come out using the black and white filter over the top. I like how this image has come out, it doesn’t really create a detailed view of the persons life though.
This is another one of the images I have taken that I thought I could edit a bit, to experiment using different tools. I have started by using the cropping tool to avoid having too much white space around the person. This also allowed me to use the rule of thirds.
After this I changed the exposure settings to make the background a lot brighter and consistent in colour. This also allowed me to have the light on the person sort of blend in with the background, on the left side.
I have also experimented using the vibrance settings on this image. This allowed me to make the colours seem like they are darker, but look as if they glow a little bit to help them stand out more.
This is the final outcome of this image that I have come with while experimenting with these features. I like how the image has come out using the rule of thirds, but it could use something in the background other than white, as it makes the image look barren and doesn’t really create an identity for the person.
Kennard is a British contemporary artist who experiments with photo montage in order to express his opinions on issues such as politics, environmental concerns and social problems. He is the Senior Research Reader in Photography at the Royal Collage of Art (London). He was an active participant in the anti-Vietnam war movement, and used his artistic background to create photo-montages in order to spread images showing the consequences of continuing the war. He also involved himself in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1970’s-1980’s.
Kennard is an activist for world peace, and conveys his passivism through his photo-montage work. His work often includes relatively basic layouts, involving only 1-3 images with a black background, use to draw maximum attention to the photo-montage in the foreground. Below are examples of Kennard’s work:
Kennard describes his own work as used to: “Rip apart the smooth, bleached and apparently seamless surface of the media’s presentation of the world and to expose the conflict and grubby reality underneath.” This quote indicates that Kennard used his work to portray the reality of life, not leaving out the horrors and atrocities that come with war, human suffering and conflict. His work contrasts how the media typically presents such issues, as the media often glances over the severity of certain issues such as the increasingly advanced technology used to produce nuclear weapons, and focuses more on issues that, arguably, matter much less (such as celebrities).
The above image was created by Kennard to emphasis that the world (more specifically, politicians and those in power) focus so much on developing unnecessary weaponry and war supplies, while completely ignoring the, arguably, more important issues such as world hunger and poverty. This image is designed to mimic a poster, and uses photo-montage editing techniques to reflect the contrast between a loaf of bread (representing hunger) and a nuclear weapon. This image is used to highlight the worrying order of the priorities of those in power, where they continue to mass produce harmful, dangerous weaponry while turning a blind eye to the real issues at hand.
The image seen above is used to convey Kennard’s opinion that those in charge are playing a dangerous game (gambling) with issues as serious and hazardous as the development of nuclear weaponry. It emphasizes that such a serious topic is often treated like a game, which contrasts the reality of what should occur, given that weapons are designed to destroy lives. Here, Kennard’s anti-war beliefs come through his work, as he highlights the careless and shameful way that those in power treat serious topics that could ruin uncounted lives.
Kennard often injects a sense of irony into his photo-montages. Above is the image of a skeleton (representing death) reading a manual on how to survive. These two elements clearly contrast each other, and so Kennard is able to convey the irony of handbooks that were distributed by the government in the 1970’s listing what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Kennard believed that in the possibility of the event of a nuclear attack, the government clearly did not feel enough concern for the population to take more drastic measures, and simply handed out leaflets stating how to survive. This image projects Kennard’s opinion, that the government took very basic, almost pitiful action, when in reality, drastic measures would be necessary in order to do any real good.
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.
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.
The above image was taken by Murtha as part of her Youth Unemployment exhibition. This image uses the shock factor of the young boy holding a cigarette so nonchalantly in his mouth, in order to draw the attention of the viewer, before allowing them to understand the underlying meaning. This image portrays the children in a situation (playing cards and smoking cigarettes) that would normally be associated with adult behavior. Here, Murtha is commenting on the fact that a deprived environment often forces children to grow up faster than they should, and the situation they are placed in (poverty) influences them to take the identity of the adults around them.
