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.
Portrait photography or portraiture in photography is a photograph of a person or group of people that captures the personality of the subject by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait picture might be artistic, or it might be clinical, as part of a medical study. Frequently, portraits are commissioned for special occasions, such as weddings or school events.Portraits can serve many purposes, from usage on a personal Web site to display in the lobby of a business.
History
The relatively low cost of the daguerreotype in the middle of the 19th century and the reduced sitting time for the subject, though still much longer than now, led to a general rise in the popularity of portrait photography over painted portraiture. The style of these early works reflected the technical challenges associated with long exposure times and the painterly aesthetic of the time. Hidden mother photography, in which portrait photographs featured young children’s mothers hidden in the frame to calm them and keep them still, arose from this difficulty. Subjects were generally seated against plain backgrounds and lit with the soft light of an overhead window and whatever else could be reflected with mirrors. Advances in photographic equipment and techniques developed, and gave photographers the ability to capture images with shorter exposure times and the making of portraits outside the studio.
Experimenting with portraits:
I experimented to take portrait photographs at school so i grabbed a camera from my class and went to the schools studio and my photography teacher was happy to help by being my model and this is what i came up with:
As you can see i crossed some pictures that are not worthy, the ones crossed with blue color were too dark, the red ones were wrong timing and the green ones were out of focus.
Final outcomes:
This is my favorite one because the face expression of the model gave a lot of meaning to the photograph. in this photograph it was taken inside the schools studio using a trigger flash, in which a Bluetooth device is connected on the camera and as soon as the photograph is taken it triggers the flash light its connected to. And as you can see only the front of his face is lighten meanwhile his sides are dark and that’s because the studio room was dark and the only light was the one pointed on his face.
This is also a good photograph with a good face expression and as you can see unlike the other photo only one side of his face is dark here and that’s because an extra studio light was added pointed to the side of his face.
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.
Who: I have decided that I’m going to focus on my brother for this section of my portrait project
What: I will be taking photos of various personal items of his which I believe represent his personality and the face he shows to the world. for this particular photo-shoot I will be photographing his car in the style of Zhao Xiaomeng’s photographs of the bikes of Beijing. For the second photo-shoot I will be photographing various smaller items relating to my brothers identity in order to fill the lower row of my typology.
Where: I will use a parking lot in town which is a placed on a demolished building, this left the outline of the walls on the other surrounding buildings which I believe creates a fitting background similar to those in Zhao’s photos. The second photo-shoot will be conducted on my gravel garden area for a grey background which still has some texture.
When: I will be taking the photos in the early evening The second photo-shoot will be taken during the afternoon.
Why: I like the idea of using possessions to show someones identity as it better conveys someones personality if they are normally a rather closed off person. Using possessions also allows me to better manipulate the subject in the images. I have chosen this time as it will give a good soft lighting for the images.
Lucas Simoes is a Brazilian photographer based in Brazil. His work is based upon his architectural background and consists of geometric shapes and figures of portrait distortion.
I am inspired by his work due to his unique approach to warping and distorting images such as the ones below
In each image, the identity of the subject is distorted to the point that no recognizable features of the person can be acknowledged. The facial features are either blurred, rippled or crystallized in these works, Hiding the true identity of the Person beneath. in my opinion, His images almost give off the idea of a distorted glass window, Allowing the outline of the subject to be seen, yet obscuring facial features in the process beyond the point of recognition.
The idea of my project will be about distorting facial features and any other features of the face and body that could be utilized to identify the subject, like hair style, clothing etc. This will be done through the process of using tools within
Michal Maku
Michal Maku is a Czechoslovakian photographer whom utilities his own artistic style known as “gellage”. this process involves the altering of the physical properties of a printed photography using gelatin and elements of collage.
Here are a few images in his style of gellage. Note the contortion of human features through the method of gellage.
I aim to imitate this style through utilising both digital and physical means of editing. I like the idea of printing off a physical image and using physical processes such as taping, burning and tearing to imitate Macku’s Process.
To respond to Francesca Woodman’s work, I have replicated some of her photographs to create images that show loss of identity. To replicate her photographs, I had my subject half hidden by slow exposures to blur her figure into a ghostly presence. Since she usually photographed herself in empty interiors, I captured my images in the studio room. In the studio room I turned on the spotlight and changed my camera setting to a slower shutter speed to manipulate the light and movement to create the same photographic effects Woodman has in her images. Woodman explored problems that affect young people such as isolation, questions of self and confusion about identity. I wanted to explore the same themes in my own work to create a series of photographs about lack of identity.
CONTACT SHEET
L: The lighting is overexposed/underexposed
F: The image is out of focus
Red X: I will not use this image
Green square: I will use this image
Francesca Woodman, Space 2, 1975-1978
She stands in the centre of the image wearing a dress and black knee high boots. She occupies an empty space in the corner of a room, standing near the back wall. Woodman stands with her feet planted apart and is bent slightly forward towards the camera with her arms and hands out in front of her. Her face, which looks down towards the floor, is obscured by her hair. Woodman is blurred as though she is shaking her head.
I replicated her first image by having my subject wear all black. I told her to stand with her feet apart and have her arms and hands out in front of her. To create the same blurred effect, I told my subject to look down towards the floor and shake her head. Her face is obscured by her hair which is blurred through movement. The slow shutter speed captures the movement and creates a ghostly presence. Since there are no windows with light streaming through I used the spotlight in the studio room to create shadows on the floor as well as highlights. On Photoshop I changed the image adjustment to black and white and increased the contrast to create an eerie effect.
Francesca Woodman, Space 2, 1975-1978
Woodman, wearing a dark dress and knee length boots, occupies an empty interior space with bare white walls. A window can be seen on the far right of the image where light enters the room. With feet firmly planted, Woodman appears to lunge forward. Her body is orientated away from the camera, her knees are bent, back hunched and arms stretched out. Her body from the ankles up is blurred as if in motion, obscuring her face.
I replicated the second image by having my subject lunge forward towards the spotlight. Because of the fast motion, most of her body is blurred. This is my favourite image that I replicated from Woodman because the rapid movement creates a sense of loss of identity. She appears lost and confused through the motion blur.
I created more loss of identity images by coming up with my own ideas to represent this topic. Although these images are not a replicate of Francesca Woodman’s photography work, they are inspired by her. I photographed my subject in front of a mirror admiring herself. I then stayed in the same position and told my subject to move out the frame. On photoshop I opened up the two images and used the opacity tool to help me position the mirror without her reflection onto of the first image. Doing this removed her reflection from the original image which connotes the idea of lack of identity since she cannot see herself through the mirror. I also applied the black and white filter to resemble Francesca Woodman’s images.
To create this image on Photoshop I told my subject to do two things. I captured one image of her looking directly at the camera, and in the same position I had my her covering her face with her hands. I placed the image with her face showing on top of the other. Using the opacity tool I placed and resized her facial features onto her hands and erased the rest of the image. This edit shows loss of identity since she is hiding her face away from the public. However, she can still be seen faintly through her hands suggesting that she can’t hide away. The subject blending into the black background creates an eerie and dark effect that Francesca Woodman portrays through her images.
Barbara Kruger was born in New Jersey, 1945. She attended a School of Visual Arts and went on to study Art and Design at Parsons School of Design in New York. She went on to get a job with Conde Nast Publications as a graphic designer, she was quickly promoted to head designer and carried on getting jobs such as; graphic designer, art director and picture editor.
Barbara Kruger is now a very conceptual artist, most of her work is made up from black and white photographs with strong text overlaid.
“I try to deal with the complexities of power and social life, but as far as the visual presentation goes I purposely avoid a high degree of difficulty.”
– barbara kruger
barbara kruger
Analysis
barbara kruger – ‘dont tread on me, dont tempt me’
This image is titled ‘Don’t tread on me. Don’t tempt me’ and is a good example of Barbara Kruger’s quickly recognisable aesthetic. Krugers aesthetic generally includes phrases layered against a black and white photograph.
In this print Barbara Kruger presents an image of a snake, surrounded by a thick, bold red border, with text boxes splitting the phrase at both the top and bottom of the image. The font used is typically used in advertising, specifically, the well known, popular brand, supreme. Using a familiar and bold design catches peoples attention immediately, therefore reaching a greater amount of people.
Kruger uses red text boxes against black and white photographs producing a contrast between the text and the background, personally I think this is also highly effective as it keeps the two elements separate, rather than merging the whole image into one ‘layer’.
