Overall I am happy with how this identity project turned out, as it can clearly be seen how I used the reference artists of Hassan Hajjaj and Diana Markosian to inspire my work, and I developed a clear plan beforehand, which I then followed through to completion. I used Hassan Hajjaj’s slightly pop-art style of a frame of repeated images around the outside of each portrait, and followed my theme of representing cultural identity by having these images be flags of all the nationalities of each person. I was inspired by how, in Diana Markosian’s portrait work in Cuba, the subjects are all in a natural position and don’t look too posed, which gives them a sense of power as they are in their home environment and whoever is looking at the image is the outsider. This sense of power is also featured in Hassan Hajjaj’s work as well. The settings for each of my selected pictures reflect the person and their personality well through colour palettes and general vibe also.

However if I were to pick out a flaw it would be how the images turned out slightly grainy. This is because, due to the time of day I did the shoots and the (lack of) natural light available, I had to increase the ISO which reduced the picture quality a little, and I also had to adjust the brightness and such in editing afterwards, which has the same effect. I don’t feel as though this affected my pictures too negatively as they still turned out well in my opinion and I was still able to use some images for my final editing process

Nevertheless, if I were to do this project again, I would redo the photoshoots with more natural lighting, for example in the early afternoon or morning, so that the sun would be in a good position, and possibly I would use a tripod for the first shoot, in order to reduce this grainy effect.

On the other hand, I feel as though the grainy quality of the images has a positive effect, as it can be seen to represent how these pictures were taken in well-known public places, where many people have passed through for years and even decades, and may have even taken pictures like these, where the grain would have been due to the camera quality of the era.