Our Photoshoot
As planned in my Storyboard Blog Post, on October 14th my group went to shoot on location at Carmen’s grandmother’s house. We aimed to create images inspired by Lissa Rivera and Cindy Sherman, keeping our Clare Rae inspired shots for our video footage. Each member of our group took images on their own cameras for this shoot, however the final edits are comprised of my shots which we all worked hard on creating unique compositions and lighting for. I focused on photographing in areas of warm lighting, with side lamps, ring lights and natural sunlight as our source; I wanted to create an atmosphere of confidence and playfulness in these images. Each member of our group walked around the house to find rooms and areas where interesting images could be taken, we tried to focus on finding patterned wallpaper, similar to Rivera’s work, as well as rooms with mirrors, fireplaces and symmetrical backgrounds that could create dynamic changes. During our photoshoot we experimented with how using flash would disrupt or help the lighting of an image, for some it helped massively by providing natural highlights on our models face as well as illuminating the background – however, in rooms with an abundance of natural lighting the flash created highly over exposed images that did not reflect the warm tones as we had hoped. I really enjoyed experimenting with the White Balance, Shutter Speed and ISO of my camera to see how changing the setting slightly could effect an image so greatly.
Flagged Unedited Images;
In Adobe Lightroom I imported all 324 of our photoshoot images and used to ‘flagging’ tool to select which ones were the most successful. When choosing these I looked for photographs with interesting compositions, sometimes I found asymmetrical images a lot more intriguing as they showed freedom and fun, qualities of our fully empowered modern woman that, in some images, we wanted to portray. After flagging our favourite images (screenshots seen above), I went through them again giving them a 1 to 5 star rating. Any images with 5 stars I then went on to edit and refine, touching up exposure and brightness mostly, to link more to Rivera’s work and convey a sense of empowerment. When editing, I wanted to keep the warm undertones that I captured in the raw shoot as I believe they helped represent the comforting atmosphere of a woman in her own home, feeling confident and safe within herself.
Best Images – Edited;
Our images show understanding of stereotyping, taking inspiration from Cindy Sherman’s work by photographing our model in a stereotypically feminine outfit, stood/sat in exaggerated poses to create an ironic display of the female gender. We wanted to use these ideologies surrounding women to form a basis for our shoot, using irony to suggest our model feels proud of her femininity as she uses it for her own empowerment, not for the pleasure of others. Locations for these images around the house include bedrooms, offices and lounges – each holding a different stereotype being squashed by our models confidence and satirical representation of how women were (and still are) seen in society.
Image Analysis
I have chosen to analyse this image from my feminism photoshoot as it shows a clear link to all three artists I have studied with use of the formal elements and thematic composition. The first element of this image that I really enjoy is the warm lighting that creates an orange hue throughout, conveying a sense of comfort and security. The dominant colour of orange, as well as creating warmth, also helps the observer understand the subject better as the bright colour connotes ideas of confidence and happiness, things our ’empowered new-age woman’ feels in a free, equal society. The dark lighting that covered this location helped us form an image with depth and meaning from the colours that the natural sunlight, coming through a window out of frame on the right, created. This lighting also illuminated the space around our main subject, as if she were emerging from a place of purity and serenity, symbolic of a heavenly light that surrounds her while she admires herself. The range of tones in this image is quite unbalanced, with the focal point at the brightest point in the centre being surrounded by a much larger border of dark shadow. This creates an atmosphere of mystery and secrecy, linking to Clare Rae’s secretive images were she hides parts of her body so they cannot be exploited for the male gaze. The use of repetition in this piece is seen from the mirrors reflections around the edges, creating distorted versions of our models features eg. arms, hands etc, further linking to our studied artists ironic portrayal of the female gender. The reflections create some rhythm in the image, relating to the idea of flowing water around her; connoting ideas of freedom and fluidity. The overall composition of the piece adds an interesting take on the theme also, we cannot actually see the model’s physical body in the image, only a reflection of her standing out of frame. This raises the question, is she really there? Or is this maybe a ghost from the past looking in on a changed world, possibly an echo from future generations looking back on what women have accomplished – the ambiguity is for the observer to imagine.