WHO IS SILVIA GRAV?

 Silvia Grav is a Spanish photographer who creates dreamy, mesmerising images edited with harsh contrasts and light effects. These editing techniques produce mysterious sceneries in which young models have rays of white lines and smoke like shadows moving across them and the rest of the photograph. Grav seems to use a variation of different layers to create her final photo, layering images with different opacities.

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At 18 she dropped out of Fine Arts the first year. After this her work got discovered and became viral after being published in media such as Juxtapoz, Communication Arts, Vice, The Huffington Post, This Is Colossal and My Modern Met.

PHOTO ANALYSIS:

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CONTEXTAL/CONSEPTUAL:

The true woman cannot be seen in the image due to the warp across her mouth. She is shown portraying some intense emotion which may show a sign of her mental state. The concept of the workday be to show someone through their emotion, linking to the idea of emotional or mental identity

TECHNICAL: 

The lighting of this image is generally quite light, clearly taken with a daylight source of lighting. You can see this lighting is natural, reflecting the focus of the photograph. The image looks to have been reasonably exposed, with a high contrast between the backdrop of the image and the model herself. The shadows of her figure and hair seem to be very dark (almost black) compared the the rest of the image.

The aperture of the photograph cannot be exactly determined as the background id barely visible, however the model is in focus. The shutter speed seems to be average, maybe 1/125 as the image seems to be regularly exposed, but also quite focused and sharp. The ISO also seems to be low as the image was taken in daylight maybe even a studio, so probably around ISO200.

VISUAL:

The image shows an almost nude woman with her hair up, holding her neck. The colour of the image is clearly in black-and-white with A clear use of tone being used between light backgrounds and dark shadows of the model. There seems to be some form in the photograph as there is some difference in shadows and highlights on the models body. The editing of the photograph is interesting as there seems to be a stretched or warped section on the models mouth being drawn to the left, which leads the eye fo this focal point.

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WHAT IS ‘IDENTITY’?

“Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and/or expressions that make a person or group, in psychology. Categorising identity can be positive or destructive, as psychological identity relates to self-image, self-esteem, and individuality.”

The idea of identity can relate to a more philosophical, deeper personal meaning about the way you want people to perceive you. It involves questioning yourself:

• who you are
• the way you think about yourself
• the way you are viewed by the world
• the characteristics that define you
• An example of identity is a person’s name

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PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO EXPLORE IDENTITY:

Claude Cahun was a Surrealist photographer whose work explored gender identity and the subconscious mind. The artist worked with her lover Marcel Moore to create self-portraits from 1928 showing her attitude and style. In her pieces she stares defiantly at the camera in an outfit that looks neither conventionally masculine nor feminine.

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Camila Falquez is a photographer and director with a creative point of view shaped by her background in ballet and contemporary dance. She is inspired by the human body and sees its movement through space as a kind of universal language, which she uses to express people identity through fashion and emotion. Falquez has photographed for labels including Nike, Barneys, Kanebo and Louis Vuitton.

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Hans-Peter Feldmann is a German conceptual artist who has worked in multiple formats, from drawings and sculptures to artistic books and photographic essays. One of his most famous works is his 1973 piece “All the Clothes of a Woman” featuring 70 pieces of one woman’s wardrobe photographed one by one, showing the parts of a woman that make her, herself, linking to ones personal identity.

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Shirin Neshat created a photographic series called “Women of Allah” which examines the complexities of women’s identities in the midst of a changing cultural landscape in the Middle East. It shows both through the view of Western representations of Muslim women, and through the more intimate subject of personal and religious conviction.

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Francesca Woodman is best known for photographing herself, but her pictures are not self-portraits in the traditional sense. She is often nude or semi-nude and usually seen half hidden or obscured – sometimes by furniture, sometimes by slow exposures that blur her figure. She uses this ghosty presence to express her identity, focusing on the deeper meaning of mental health, depression and anxiety.

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Identity in portraiture photography can have a lot of variation in meaning. There are many sub themes that come under this main title of Identity with in portraiture, such as the ones below. Identity’s true meaning is: the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. The way the photographer explores what identity is with in a person exposes their own identity as a photographer and what the word means to them.

Here is a mood board of examples of different photographers who’s work I able to express these different sub themes using portraiture:

Gender

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Belonging

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Environment/ upbringing

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Cultural identity

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Social/Geographical identity

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Lack of / loss of identity

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