what do I want my essay to say?

• what society expects us to be
• how i explore myself and my existence
• how i express myself through fashion
• how i feel about myself and my presence in the world
• which photographers that i have looked at – lauren greenfield, nick waplington, jen davies and cindy sherman.

my possible essay questions

• in what way is identity and autobiography expressed in the work of cindy sherman and jen davies?
• how is the work of lauren greenfield and cindy sherman questioning the politics of gender and female stereotypes?
• to what extent does cindy sherman explore stereotypes of women in her work?
• in what way can self-portraiture explore different female personalities, identities and stereotypes?
• gender: how females are portrayed within photography

what are the issues with some of the essay questions that i have come up with?

• how is the work of lauren greenfield and cindy sherman questioning the politics of gender and female stereotypes? – this question limits my statement of intent and doesn’t really allow me to explain my project as best I can.
• to what extent does cindy sherman explore stereotypes of women in her work? – I feel this question is too limiting as it just limits my work to look directly at females, whereas I want my work to be universal.
• in what way can self-portraiture explore different female personalities, identities and stereotypes? – this question limits my creative elements of the projects to mainly self-portraiture, however my work is very varied and uses many forms of photography.
• gender: how females are portrayed within photography – this question is similar to those above and I as I have said before I don’t want my work to completely focus on females, what about men?.

my essay question is – in what way is identity and autobiography expressed in the work of cindy sherman and jen davies?

as my project has evolved, I have developed a different perspective of ‘love and rebellion’. during my isolation period, due to being tested positive for COVID-19, I have had a lot of time to think, pondering lots of thoughts that are normally pushed aside as I am always busy being a student, an equestrian and stable worker. I have realised how much my horses mean to me, after being forced to stay away from them for 17 days. the joy they bring to me is unique. I have taken many images during isolation, of my sister getting ready and have watched her explore herself freely, by putting on makeup. I have come to the realisation that she like me is some what an athlete, she dedicates her life to gymnastics, similar to how I dedicate mine to horse riding. while watching her explore her femininity I thought how the media expects us to be, how they expect us to act and how they expect us to look. however i don’t want my project to just focus on how society expects females to look because that would limit my creativity and my intent that I have set out for this work to display. also i don’t want my work to just focus on females, as males feel the same things as us women, so this project can hopefully just be universal. so after lots of thought I am going to portray my life within my photobook and film, as it comes, what goes on, my thoughts, my feelings, the things i love, the things that i rebel, the things i do. essentially I am just going to document. my essay is essentially going help me explain it all, with the help of some influential photographers. my film is going to use my essay to add depth to the audio.