A sentence: The story I am portraying in my photo book is all about how masculinity is portrayed, what it means to be masculine and the changes/challenges boys face during adolescence.
A paragraph: As Robert Mapplethorpe said himself; “I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn’t. And that’s a tough place to be because you’re never satisfied”. I share the same desire for perfection in my own appearance, both mentally and physically. This need for perfection comes as a sort of validation, a purpose. I want to highlight these struggles but also highlight other struggles and negative mind thoughts men face during adolescence, the need to fit a certain mould, look a certain way, act a given way, and the aspiration to achieve certain things in order to prove to themselves that they are male. Is this necessary? Should men face these mental struggles? Or is it a natural part of life? What does it mean to be male? I will also explore the mental health aspect men face, as well as promoting self love and rebelling against the expectations of appearance on social media also being key themes in my photo-book. I will also compare Mapplethorpe’s work with Karlheinz Weinberger, another artist who explored the same topic.
Design: Consider the following
How you want your book to look and feel: I want my book to be minimalist and simple. I want it to have a smooth feel to it and for it to be pleasing to the eye with a black and white colour scheme representative of Mapplethorpe’s (my artist’s) work and Karlheinz Weinberger’s work.
Paper and ink: I want to use black ink in a basic font to keep the attention on what the writing is about instead of what it looks like and also for the attention to be on the photographs that I produce. I want photo finish glossy paper as I find this has some of the highest definition and is the clearest unlike matte paper.
Format, size and orientation: I want my book to be A5 and landscape as smaller books result in higher detail as the photo retains its resolution however on a smaller page. I also think smaller books are simply more appealing aesthetically.
Binding and cover: In terms of my cover, I want the book to be hardback for a professional look and feel. I want the image on the front and rear cover to be environmental photos of objects, no humans, for a abstract feel that doesn’t give away what the story is about, it makes the reader question it and become intrigued, thus more likely to pick it up and open it. For example, I might have a set of dumbbells or a tool box on the front and rear pages that symbolize masculinity but don’t scream it to your face, it’s more subtle which is the theme I am going for, as it nicely contrasts against the hard, strong, powerful conotations of the term “masculine”.
Title: Virtruvian Man: the ideal body composition, the perfect male, essentially is what every man aspires to be.
Design and layout: For my design and layout, I want to have one image per page similar to my Zine project. In addition, similarly to my Zine, I will also have my story in chronological order. I have a beginning, middle and end to my story.
How do Robert Mapplethorpe and Karlheinz Weinberger portray ‘Lad Culture’ through the medium of self-portraiture.
Opening quote:
“I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn’t. And that’s a tough place to be because you’re never satisfied”.
Introduction:
As Robert Mapplethorpe himself quoted; “I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn’t. And that’s a tough place to be because you’re never satisfied”. I share the same desire for perfection in my own appearance, both mentally and physically. This need for perfection comes as a sort of validation, a purpose in my eyes hence why in my personal investigation, my area of study will look at masculinity, what it means to be male, how adolescence shapes us as men, conflicts men often face such as body dysmorphoria and a desire to fulfill a certain mould, a mould set by society to look and act a certain way, to be the breadwinner and the hero they dreamt of being as a child. To achieve this, I will be studying the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and analyzing his work on the male gaze. In his work, one of his major exhibitions named ‘The Perfect Medium’ which was featured at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 27 Oct 2017 – 18 Feb 2018, showcased a broad selection of his work, from portraits of his contemporaries to self-portraits, floral still lifes and erotic imagery. Mapplethorpe heavily explored ways identity could be captured and expressed by the camera with a certain style of black and white still portraits, almost always taken in a black or white studio and set up with the models or himself creating or imitating poses in front of the camera. Often, his traditional style of portraiture had a clear subject, and this was often the male physique as he tried highlighting both the beauty and form of the ideal male physique (virtruvian physique as mentioned in this blog post). Through his self-portraits, he strategically crafted a public image for himself. He often took photos of himself as well as models, and by using the styles as mentioned above, he often challenged gender stereotypes, which is a similar theme to my personal study, however rather than challenging it, I want to explore it further. In essence, due to the reasons as highlighted previously, Mapplethorpe seems to be the best artist to study and recreate for my project, as I both admire and want to replicate his style of black and white portrait photography, as well as helping me answer my question of ‘How do Robert Mapplethorpe and portray ‘Lad Culture’ through the medium of self-portraiture’. I will also compare Mapplethorpe’s work with Karlheinz Weinberger who explored the similar topic and also shared a similar style of photography with the black and white staged images.
I plan to create a photo book following the theme of masculinity and exploring the way in which most men naturally desire to be the “alpha” during their phase of adolescence. I want to highlight that the male body image pushed by magazines, reality shows and so called “experts” are largely unachievable and doesn’t just effect women, when I’d argue the matter affects men to the same degree. Thinks links to love and rebellion as I am trying to push for men to love themselves as their own rebellion towards their own bodies should come to an end.
The Vitruvian Man (hence the name of my project/photo book) is a drawing made by the Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci in about 1490. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the Roman architect Vitruvius. It demonstrates the ideal proportions based on science, maths and the golden ratio.
A title sequence for the TV show “James May’s Man Lab” (2010-2013) inspired by the original ‘Virtruvian Man’ drawing. The use of the word “man” further demonstrates the theme of masculinity. Overall the image is quite farcical and is an example of genius design, especially considering the face is that of James May himself.
The Vitruvian Man (a key inspiration for me project/photo book) is a drawing made by the Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci in about 1490. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the Roman architect Vitruvius. It demonstrates the ideal proportions based on science, maths and the golden ratio. The whole theme of the “ideal” body and body image is the perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of ones own body. It involves how a person sees themselves, compared to the standards that have been set by society, standards I both agree and disagree with. In order to tackle this, I will delve into the struggles men face on a daily basis in order to feel excepted in society, the need to fit a stereotypical mould that is the muscular, fearless, heroic type of male that has perfect proportions to which almost all men feel pressured or almost forced to fit into at some point in their lifetime. The book I hope will show struggles of adolescence in young males and insecurities brought up as a result, leading to me to also delve into the world of body dysmorphia, highlighting mental struggles brought up on body image associated with men which unfortunately often isn’t mentioned in main stream media and the likes. Furthermore, I will also explore gym culture and the taboo world of bodybuilding and the need to “better” ourselves and how many of us, (myself included) feel a great need to improve our body image and presentation towards others. I will also touch on lesser talked about topics such as steroids, sarms and other performance enhancing drugs that many men worldwide feel the need to abuse in order to fit that “mould” i mentioned earlier.
The book, ‘Atlas of Men’ was originally published in 1954 by the author William Herbert Sheldon and analysed different male body types and compositions in their hundreds and does a really good job of highlighting the differences between all male physiques and how everyone is truly unique.
The reason for me exploring this theme and basing my photo book on it is because this is a topic I as well as many other men are or were deeply affected by at some point during adolescence, which means by having so much emotion towards this topic and own experiences, I believe I will be able to create a better quality and more understanding final piece, utilizing skills learnt during my Zine and Film project previously made. All men at some point have strive for perfection in something, many in their own appearance, both mentally and physically. This need for perfection comes as a sort of validation, a purpose. I want to highlight these struggles but also highlight other struggles and negative mind thoughts men face during adolescence, the need to fit a certain mould, look a certain way, act a given way, and the aspiration to achieve certain things in order to prove to themselves that they are male. Is this necessary? Should men face these mental struggles? Or is it a natural part of life? What does it mean to be male? I will also explore the mental health aspect men face, as well as promoting self love and rebelling against the expectations of appearance on social media also being key themes in my photo-book.
A classic advert portraying men to be masculine.
What does it mean to be male? Being a man to me means being uniquely you. It means not being afraid to show the world who you are, exactly as you are. Being a man is never being afraid to show your emotions, to ask for help when you need it. More commonly however, it refers to your biological complexion, how you are made, your DNA makeup, which chromosomes you have, what genitalia you were born with and thus is a title you are assigned to at birth, unlike a man which is who you develop to become over many years of growth, both physically and mentally. Furthermore, being a male has a socially defined role, often to be the bread winner, the alpha, the protector, however, this can be argued isn’t always the case. Should males accept these roles? Is this the correct definition? What does the ideal male look like? What are the mental challenges adolescents face? I will explore this further throughout my project.
Classic Physique Mr Olympia (Champion) Chris Bumstead who won the Mr Olympia in the Classic Physique division in 2019 is the embodiment of the virtruvian physique, however on a sh*t load of steroids
Below are two art movements that inspired me to do my project, in which I will aim to adopt such styles and techniques in my own project…
PICTORIALISM
Time period
1880s-1920s
Key characteristics/conventions
Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries.
Methods/ techniques/ processes
Vaseline on lenses to have foggy smudged affect, and chemicals or scratches on developing negatives. Made the images look like paintings, with depth and sketchiness through human interaction, not just the mechanical use of the camera
Artists associated
Abelardo Morell– modern contemporary. Uses old keyhole method to project outside scenes into rooms, no other interference so the light projects the image upside down. lengthy process
Alfred Stieglitz – New York in 1890 promoted idea that photography was a medium as capable of artistic expression as painting or sculpture, created photo succession group (important group in solidifying the pictorialist movement) Alfred used compositional choices and use of natural elements like rain, snow, and steam to unify components of a scene into a visually pleasing pictorial whole.
Julia Michael Cameron – pre-Raphaelite style, fairy light, unfocused. Creates angelic scenes with woman, white clothing and soft finish to present innocence.
Emerson’s Naturalistic Photography – promoted photography as art rather than science, natural and aesthetic depictions of (famously) wheat workers workers
REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Time period
1830/40s – 1920s
Key characteristics/ conventions
Pure photography or straight photography refers to photography that attempts to depict a scene as realistically and objectively as permitted by the medium, renouncing the use of manipulation. The West Coast Photographic Movement is best known for the use of this style. The term ‘realism’ can mean to depict things as they are, without idealizing or making abstract. It is also a 19th-century art movement, particularly strong in France, which rebelled against traditional historical, mythological and religious subjects and instead depicted scenes from life. The fathers of photography, Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851) and William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), both described it as a medium that allows nature to represent itself, seemingly without the intervention of the artist.
Methods/ techniques/ processes
Methods include using tripods and natural light facing the subject in order to create still, focused and detailed images of a subject, often a person.
Artists associated
Paul Strand – Paul Strand was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. In the 1930s, he helped found the Photo League.
Edward Weston – Edward Henry Weston was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called “one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…” and “one of the masters of 20th century photography.”
Walker Evans – Walker Evans was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans’s work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8×10-inch view camera.
The first part of the ‘Personal Investigation’ we focused around Art and Activism. A majority of the study I did was centred around the Black Lives Matter movement and the Pandemic. I heavily explored restriction and repression which both events had a heavy influence in, the Black lives matter topic being centred towards abolshing the african amercian repression in the US, and the pandemic topic showing the impact of new restrictions and, essentially the new way of life we have all experinced this year. I finalised this series of work by exploring the question of ‘What makes an image iconic’, answering with my own attempt at creating an iconic image with the phrase ‘The New Normal’ in mind. The image I captured portarys a person standing in the centre of a busy street wearing a mask as everyone else walks on by.
Interpreting Love
On the topic of love, I produced a zine (a 16 page booklet) about my father, giving a brief insight into his life, both from the perspective of the last and the present, allowing for a comparison over the years whereby I took photos of archival imagery, (old photos of him as a toddler from the family album) and also taking photos of him in the present day, as well as objects (books/stamps etc) and places (houses where he grew up) all that have great significance to his personal story which is completely unique to him. The final product had an abstract feel as one the most important points I considered when producing the zine. This concluded to be quite effective as different people interpret the zine in different ways without an obvious and clear cut story line, A theme throughout was the idea that everyones relationship is different and that is what makes them special asking the question about what truly is love and what makes a relationship so unique.
Interpreting Rebellion
For the rebellion portion of the first part of the ‘Personal Study’ I focused the project around the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on teenagers, presenting the final project as a film. With the main focus on ‘Rebellion’ I took a stance representative of the rebellious nature of teenagers during the pandemic and the natural disregard for rules all of us have had to abide by the whole year. The film was set up into three sections, the first showing the ‘first lockdown’, the second showing the easing of restrictions over the summer and peoples want to socialise and party, then finishing off the film on a cliff hangar as it is announced once again we are going into a lockdown. The film was filmed from a U.K perspective not a Jersey one. I think the film is very effective as it shows a clear message about rebellion and how people as a whole struggle to follow rules, especially life changing ones. Additonally the audio in the film allowed me to create lots of subtle messages and really emphasize certain political and personal beliefs and opinions about events this year.
The final film has been made to show the impact of the pandemic on teenagers using a lot of Jake’s and my own experiences. All shots in our film are moving images, not still images. In addition to this, when recording, our aim was to make sure that the majority of the video had a grey, dull atheistic to it, giving the overall film an impactful and negative effect. In order to achieve this, the shots were taken on darker days with a naturally grey tone or at night. The dark colours act as a metaphor for the negativity the pandemic has brought and help emphasis the eerie vibes, now commonplace as a result of the lock down.
This shot was taken to emphasis the eerie vibes, now commonplace as a result of the lock down
The film we be shot, mostly free hand was recorded on a Nikon DSLR camera. We shot the film free hand as we wanted to capture a natural and more relatable documentary style film. However some shots were be taken on a tripod which was especially useful in time lapses. Some shots were also filmed with a 200mm lens which helped capture long distance shots, where zooming into cars or buildings for example was necessary for our film.
Time lapse shot with Nikon DSLR Camera and 200mm lens filmed on a tripod.
None of our models/subjects in our film show their face. We wanted the film to appear anonymous and able to relate to anyone. A large focus will be on the behavior of a person, their hands and their actions as facial expressions won’t be included as anonymity is a key theme in our film.
Various shots of people doing various different actions, and as mentioned, no shot shows a persons face as anonymity is a key theme in our film.
The narrative is a cyclical narrative, as in it starts how it ends: in chronological order, someone is looking at their phone watching the news – the cases going up, then the imposing of lock down, cases then fall, releasing of restrictions, and then a repeat where cases rise and lock down is threatened again.
Editing Techniques
The film as a whole took many hours to edit. We used Adobe Premier Pro CC in order to produce the highest quality film we could as it offers the best tools and features to achieve this. The editing itself took lots of trial and error, removing many scenes and adding unplanned scenes/edits to help keep the flow and story intact throughout the film.
We used the clipping and splitting tool a lot as the film has been fully comprised of cut scenes, flashing through one another, possibly only having screen time for a seconds rather than one continuous shot. Many clips in the initial part of the film were taken from news outlets (all of which are cited/credited at the end of the film) using screen recording features available on iPhone, which is evident in the scenes where graphs and live broadcasts are projected at the almost immediate start of the film. Clip positioning was integral to make sure the story portrayed in our film made sense.
The film has been comprised of cut scenes, flashing through one another, possibly only having screen time for a seconds rather than one continuous shot. Here, someone is looking at their phone watching the news watching as the the cases are going up.
Some clips were sped up, and others also slowed down from real life in order to create the slow, dramatic atmosphere once lock down was imposed, essentially showing that time had felt like it had slowed down or even stopped.
The above photos were taken from clips where the video was slowed down for dramatic effect.
In the film, we only used one visual transition which is seen at the very end during the credits. We wanted to avoid too many transitions as it would make our film seem tacky, and our theme was already established that we would strictly use cut scenes made up of straight cuts.
The final part of the film with a repeat of our title page and credits as well as citation of news clips we used in the beginning of the film were all put together and was only time we used a visual transition in our film.
Lastly, we needed a title/opening scene as well as the credits. I designed them all on Adobe Photoshop CC as it offered the best tools for me to achieve this. I created them including a very high resolution image that fit the theme of lock down very well from the internet. However, I encountered a problem with my first rendition of the title page which is the top left image below, where the size was wrong for the film as the aspect ratio on Adobe Premier Pro would mean that the image would either have to be cropped, resulting in a lower quality image which wasn’t desirable. This led me to designing the image in the top right adjacent to the first rendition. This was my final design which included the correct aspect ratio for the film. Then, I decided to experiment with an end sequence which would be included before the credits of our film, however neither of the bottom two pictures made it into the final film.
Different title sequences of which only one was picked.
Sound Editing
Sound plays a very important role in the film with much of the pace, emotion and setting relying on the audio and is key for keeping the fluidity of the film. As a result of this, most of the film was made up of separately recorded audio and audio effect from Adobe Premiere Pro CC. In order to achieve this, we used lots of sound techniques and lots of audio layering. This is because by doing this, we were able to create atmosphere in the film, such as on an empty street with just the sound of the wind or the sound of laughter and chatter in a pub or restaurant.
We used lots of sound techniques and lots of audio layering, this is because by doing this, we were able to create atmosphere in the film, such as on an empty street with just the sound of the wind.
The sound is also used to portray some of the most impactful events over the past year and we will be using audio clips from new reports, radio broadcasts and other media in our film, (such as the lockdown announcement on the news). The sound provides the most change and contrast in the film and impacts the visual element the most, making the film much more impactful and personal on the viewer.
We chose not to use music in this film, unless it fitted the environment however even then it simply is restricted to the background and not the main focus of the scene, i.e party scene with music in background.
The party scene in our film incorporates music with lots of bass in the background.
We used audio from the website ‘freesound.org’, aswell as some from the clips but mostly, specifically recorded sounds to add into the video. This in my opinion made the video seem much more professional than just using audio from the clips. This also gives us the opportunity to remove wind noise or talking that may have occurred behind the camera. For example clips such as the empty street clip we plan to capture had no audio from the original video but rather was superimposed with mp3 sounds downloaded from the internet.
The overall story arc of our film shows the progression of lockdown in Jersey which has and still is being experienced globally as the Covid-19 pandemic doesn’t discriminate. This provokes thoughts of experiences shared as a result of these unprecedented times. I think we managed to capture this quite well.
Collaboration
Throughout the project, me and my partner Jake had a clear vision, we knew the story we wanted to tell and we knew how to go about filming and editing it. Hence, we split out roles in order to be as efficient as possible, where Jake was the designated editor as well as being responsible for capturing much of the footage, whereas I was the director having come up with the story, scene composition, title and title scenes as well as pestering Jake on exactly how I wanted the film to look in terms of both recording and editing. Overall, we spent many hours on this project and none of it went to waste, with each of us pursuing our vision and completing it not only on time, but in a presentable way.
Recording/Editing
We used a story board initially as well as many written plans on how we will record the film. Much thought went into this process, however rather quickly we came up with a solid plan with strong foundations to which surprisingly, we have very well emulated in other final piece as all of it was featured with very minor tweaks from the initial plan. Not only that, it gave us a clear vision and made it easier to record and edit as we knew what we wanted/needed, thus speeding up the process as we were far more efficient. Editing is Jake’s forte, hence why we both agreed he should be our designated editor for the entire project. To utilise his skills, Jake used Adobe Premiere pro CC which would enable the use of smoother transitions as well overlaying stills and sound effects to give the film a more dramatic and realistic vibe with depressing, dystopian tones and moods as well as many other cool features that most other editing platforms wouldn’t allow for, all of which I will highlight in a future blogpost listed below…
Overall, the project was plain sailing most of the way, although we did encounter the odd problem along the way which I will highlight in my next post when I delve into detail about the recording and editing process. All in all, I believe the final outcome has greatly demonstrated the large amounts of work put into this project, especially from my project partner Jake’s side as he was the designated editor. Overall, what took over 5 hours of shooting was condensed to only 3 minutes which is testament to the amount of hard work put into such a small result. Furthermore, this is further emphasized when considering that despite the ideal film length being set to 90 seconds, we couldn’t help but produce a film twice the length as the story we tried to convey through our film couldn’t be condensed anymore than it already has been in order for it to make any sense.
However, based on feedback, there isn’t much we would change, other than the length of the film as it was exactly twice as long as the specification asked for as mentioned, as well as possible the camera quality which could’ve ben improved, however this would’ve required a better/higher megapixel or better resolution camera, which unsurprisingly we didn’t have access to.
The pandemic starts – Film loads of news sources from different peoples perspectives (off of phone, tv, laptop etc) – Stitching loads of news articles together (overlaying sound)
End segment with quote from Prime Minister: “The Nation is going into lockdown” – quick into to black (thud)
Part 2
Record empty and messy streets/ roads (dystopian theme)
Record peoples heads watching TV (no faces)
Person doing push ups in corner of room (bored idea, dark lighting)
Amazon package arrives … unboxing
Making coffee and biscuits
News quote: “restrictions being eased” – again from TV or phone
(SLOW DOWN PACE HERE) opening front door, zoom into person seeing chest relax (one shot – follow them getting into the car, zoom into dash then drive off as zooming out.
Part 3
Film people socialising – People hugging
Pubs, people drinking again
Busy streets in town (timelapse)
Cars + bikes driving on the roads
Ending
Film someone looking at their phone watching cases go up on the rise again…. fade to black.
