What you want to explore?

For my personal study , I want to focus on portrait photography, as in year 12 it was my favourite part of photography. I really enjoyed having a set up and how professional the images looked with the lighting. I think portraits are a very strong way of presenting ideas as you can interpret them in any way and when it comes to editing them you can basically transform them in any way. I think by doing portraits it will present the theme of identity perfectly. For my personal study, I want to focus on capturing different emotions and feelings through portrait photography and look into how mental health can be presented and shown through photography. I think it plays a massive part in the theme of identity, as it’s a personal aspect to everyone, and everyone goes through different emotions.

Why it matters to you?

It matters to me as I think mental health is a really important and key factor through my teenage years. I want to try present it through taking portrait photographs.

How you wish to develop your project?

By taking portrait images, and editing them afterwards to show different emotions.
When and where you intend to begin your study?

I will use the studio to take all my images as it’s a professional set up and get it started as soon as I have free time in school and get a model to photograph for this project.

My chosen theme is identity, as I think mental health can identify an individual massively as it’s a very personal matter. The final outcome I want to have and achieve by the end of this project is a photobook. The artists I am going to take inspiration from are Gabriel Isak and Edward Honaker. They both focus on photographing mental health through different ways. Gabriel includes loads of blue tones in his images, and takes them out in an open environment as well as mainly capturing the silhouette of the individual instead of a clear face shot. Whereas Edward focuses more on his editing and blurs the faces out using different techniques which shows he focuses more on editing his images rather than taking them in a certain way. I think by using both of them it will give me a nice overview of both sides to this project

Edward Honaker and Francesca Woodman

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As a relatively unknown artist it is hard to find much to any information on photographer Magda Adamczak. At time of writing she currently has 2,232 followers on Instagram where she posts her photography multiple times a day. her work often features her family, specifically her young children and consists of candid photos. The photos are very raw and look barely editied and offer an insight into Adamczak’s idyllic family life. In 2019 her work was featured in a spread by National Geographic, focusing on the topic “Explore authentic food cultures around the world” https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/your-shot-photos-food-culture-around-world The piece, submitted through National Geographic’s amateur photographers program YOUR SHOT, featured her children eating together at a dinner table. The image description reads “A simple lunch brings generations together. Adamczak writes that she stayed in this vacation house as a child; now her own children visit to eat apples collected from the trees outside.”

The photo, taken from National Geographic magazine features Adamczak and her young children eating dinner at the table. Some of the children look up at the camera in feels very natural and candid despite the children looking into the camera inquisitively while others carry on with their meals in peace. The photo has an almost dirty feeling due to the rawness of the photo, lack of editing and nostalgically evocative setting. The placing of the crockery on the very rectangular table works to create sharp lines that direct to each character in the photo.

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Quotes from interview with David Campany

The new neo-liberal narrative for the “creative class” omits the conditions of the working class and refuses the perspective and creativity of a subject like myself

Yet, despite their harsh criticism they also felt that photography could liberate a new way of seeing and a radical consciousness. ‘The Notion of Family’ responds to that call to suspend the passive aestheticism that turns abject poverty into an object of enjoyment

It’s imperative we tell our own stories, controlling the framework, context and narrative

Select one image from the photographer and analyse in depth following this method: TECHNICAL, VISUAL, CONTEXTUAL, CONCEPTUAL – focus on the last two aspects of analysis to achieve highest marks

Frazier, who is very close to her grandmother and namesake Ruby often incorporates imagery of her grandmother in her subversion of traditional white social documentary photography she criticises the way white artists ostracise emergent working class photographers, she says, “The new neo-liberal narrative for the “creative class” omits the conditions of the working class and refuses the perspective and creativity of a subject like myself” This image, taken from La Toya Ruby Frazier’s photobook ‘The Notion of Family’ shows a young girl having her hair done by her grandmother who’s face is out of frame leaving to an anonymity of her identity. The photo is in black and white which gives off a dramatic, gritty ambiance elevated by the young girl looking directly into the camera, unsmiling. This could possibly be Frazier’s response to the medias interpretation of black women as aggressive and stripping black people of their identity’s as she explains in her interview with David Campany, “It’s imperative we tell our own stories, controlling the framework, context and narrative” This quote highlights the importance of storytelling in art through your ow perspective rather than what other want you to do. Frazier employs the use of leading lines of the old woman’s hands to place more emphasis on the young girl and make her gaze more powerful. This gaze is an inversion on society as customarily black people are the ones constantly scrutinised not the other way round. Frazier manages to make the photo beautiful despite it’s dark messaging. This could be purposefully done to represent how blackness is aestheticised by the media as she writes “Yet, despite their harsh criticism they also felt that photography could liberate a new way of seeing and a radical consciousness. ‘The Notion of Family’ responds to that call to suspend the passive aestheticism that turns abject poverty into an object of enjoyment” The photo resonates with many other pieces of Frazier’s work as it is heavily connected to the idea of family, specifically her grandmother.

Shipla Gupta

Shilpa Gupta is an artist from Mumbai, India. Gupta uses a range of mediums from manipulated found objects to video. She often responds to the topic of human perception and how information is received and internalised everyday. Gupta looks at how objects, places, people get defined and her work links to these where definitions like labels are used. She also responds to issues in India which include gender and class barriers and religious differences.

Gupta’s works relate to the highly mediated act of seeing, retrieving and remembering trying to get the viewer to see something different or get them to question what they are looking at.

Examples of her work:

Altered Inheritances- 100 (Last Name) Stories

This exhibition is about how people from South Asia are treated in the Gulf. Gupta traced individual people who changed their names for survival or to succeed. The images also include the reasons behind why the names were shed. The splitting of images is showing a sharp break from the past. The words on each are “triggers for memory” in Zarina’s Home is a Foreign Place (1999), about a longing for a home she could not return to. The architecture in the exhibition is inspired by the floor plan of her childhood home. The exhibition also has a video of Zarina remembering leaving the house after the Partition in 1947 made by Sophie Ernst.

https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/253858/shilpa-gupta-and-zarinaaltered-inheritances-home-is-a-foreign-place/

I really like the way that she splits her images in half and the presentation being misaligned, I would like to include this in my own work.

The images are also interesting, they have a sense of personality and Identity to each one whether it is an object, landscape or portrait photo. I would also like to take inspiration from these when taking my own photos.

Image Analysis

Key Themes – Shipla Gupta’s work is inspired by the issues with how south Asians are treated in the gulf and how they survived by changing their names, essentially changing their identity.

Content – Seven split images including pictures of surfaces, landscapes and one portrait image.

For the image analysis I will be focusing on the half-image at the end of the sequence, the picture of the sky, with the quote, ‘When he was getting married, he wanted him and his wife to have the same name, but felt it was unfair to ask her to take his surname. So they both changed their surnames to something new‘ hand written under the image.

Formal Elements – The image is quite monochrome and only has two colours, being white and blue. There is not much tonal range in the image creating a low contrasting image which is very soft in colour. The image is taken from eye-level, in level with the horizon capturing the whole sky as the sole image. The natural daylight from the sky adds to the soft, bright atmosphere to the image, this could be a metaphor as it is the end of the sequence so could symbolise a happy ending. Gupta has added a white geometric circle into the centre of the very organic image creating a contrast between them. In context to the quote under the image the blank circle could suggest an empty space or new beginning.

Mood – The image creates a sense of peace and calm as the colours and clouds are soft. Gupta could be trying to link the happy ending or to heaven where everything is pure and tranquil.

In the photo it shows the use of two black and white photos layered on top of each other where the lighting in the Photos are natural with a fast shutter speed as there isn’t much light in the photos and with the two people I would expect movement which is easily cause with a fast shutter speed so there is no blurring in the image.

“The snapshot idea has always interested me – the way an object in its dysfunction or contextual orientation become an image; it seems to become an image itself.”

I agree with this statement as a dysfunctional object I find can be very interesting in the way they have become exploring how it looks which you can then photograph and become a new image itself.

The use of a small tonal range is very effective as both images relate towards the blacks and whites giving both the images that simple link between the two. the two images have a contrast in textures as the back photo has a softer texture because of the bed sheets having a comfy look to the image. With the front image it has a rougher texture as the road has a rough look to it and so does the grass with its uneven surface.

“I have found following my own image fascination difficult. It is always in conflict with my conscience intentions and leads me into unexpected, sometimes unwelcome territory.”

I do find with photography it can become bias towards conscience decisions which then again can lead to unexpected territory but it can also lead towards good decisions and the conscience decision can lead to something really impactful.

As the overlaying photo has a fork road where the one road splits into two may reflect the photo of the two women as they could be the one road parting into two. The overlaying photo also covers the women’s faces which isn’t centre so then it could be intentional on how it’s uneven and how it is purposely places on those faces or could be accidental.

“Collage is a way to create the circumstances for digression and for attention to the unintentional or inadvertent, as you say, for allowing a conscious contemplation of the image in its dream state.”

With the overlaying photo is gives both the images attention for this uniqueness whether it was intentional or not but it does allow the the conscience to contemplate the image on its dream like state.

Francesca Woodman was born in Denver, Colorado in 1958. She first started taking photos in her early teens while at boarding school, during her short career she took over 800 pictures. Her father was a painter and photographer and also lectured in photography at the University of Boulder in Colorado and  Her mother was a ceramicist and sculptor so art became a big part of her everyday life. Her family spent their summers at her parents’ farmhouse in the countryside in Italy where many of her photographs were taken, she was inspired by Man Ray and Claude Cahun which can be seen in themes and style of her work mixed with the influence of surrealist art and the European culture. She developed her ideas and skills as a student at Rhode Island School of Design but suffered from depression after a move to New York in 1979 and in 1981, she then sadly took her own life at the age of 22.

Edward Honaker was diagnosed with a mood disorder at the age of 19. He was experiencing depression which created an overwhelming obstacle in his day-to-day life. He documents his own depression through the use of self portraits, the black and white harrowing images illustrates the photographer’s experience with depression and anxiety. The photography shows his helplessness he feels while trying to battle this depressive disorder, he focuses on blurring his face and use of water in his photos to symbolise how he feels like he’s suffocating and drowning. In an attempt to raise awareness of the topic, Honaker says about the project: “Mental health disorders are such a taboo topic. If you ever bring it up in conversation, people awkwardly get silent, or try to tell you why it’s not a real problem. When I was in the worst parts of depression, the most helpful thing anyone could have done was to just listen to me – not judging, not trying to find a solution, just listen. I’m hoping that these images will help open up conversation about mental health issues. Everyone is or will be affected by them one way or another, and ignoring them doesn’t make things better.”

For this project on identity and community I want to explore mental health and how it is a part of my identity. It matters to me because mental health has brought me together with my friends and family but has also been the reason to lose family and friends. With my project I want to explore anxiety, depression, bulimia and borderline personality disorder. I want to explore Francesca Woodman’s and Edward Honaker’s work as their work focuses on mental health which I Found would be a good fit for my project. With past projects I used a slow shutter speed which I found very interesting to explore which can be seen in both Francesca Woodman’s and Edward Honaker’s work.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a disorder which effects how the persons mood and interaction with others. Symptoms of this are: emotional instability, disturbed patterns of thinking or perception, impulsive behaviour and intense but unstable relationships with others. Most conditions of BPD result from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Bulimia is an eating disorder with episodes of binge eating and self-induced vomiting. Anxiety is a feeling of unease such as worry or fear these can range from mild to severe. Lastly depression is low mood which can last for weeks or months which can effect daily life.

With these mental health disorders I want to show in my work as I find they have become part of my life with myself, family and friends experiencing these. I want to use that for my photobook showing the progress of these mental health disorders showing how they can get better but suddenly drop back to struggling again. In the book I want to start with a bold photo stating the mental health disorders as these thing can suddenly happen after a traumatic situation which can lead to years of struggle.

Formalism (Paper Project) – The first project we started was based on formalism. We scrunched up a piece of paper and took photos experimenting with colour, shadows and perspective. I learnt how you can’t just take a few images and them all be good, but you have to take hundreds in different lighting, shapes, angles and colours which in the end gives you a handful of good images.

Expressionism (The World is Beautiful) – The next project we did was about Albert Renger-Patzsch and the World Is Beautiful. For this I went out and took photos around town in black and white. I learnt how black and white creates drama and how different tones can be used to make an image exciting. This project really inspired me and interested me to use black and white in further projects.

Photomontage – Another project I enjoyed doing was the photomontage project. I enjoyed it because it increased my understanding and ability in photoshop. I took many photos of my friend in different lightings and cut out the facial features from myself and my friends. I then put them on top of a background image of a face which then altered the appearance of the original image. I first made one out of celebrities but then out of my friends.

Multi-Exposure – I also enjoyed the multi-exposure project for the same reason as photomontage. I used photoshop to get a few images of the same person in different lighting, position or facial expression and put them on top of each other. I changed the colour of two of the images so they represented old 3d glasses with one side blue and the other side red.

Landscape (Rural and Romanticism) – I enjoyed the landscape project because it introduced me to a different way of taking photos. I went out to take photos to beauport bay with my friend Matthew Brown. We took photos of the waves, the cliffs and the view of St Brelades bay. I took inspiration from Ansel Adams and took my images in colour but made them black and white. I believe black and white is a better medium for photos as it simplifies the image but makes it more exciting with tones.

New Topographic – The new topographic project was my favourite project I completed during my time studying photography. The project allowed me to combine my favourite parts of photography including, landscape in an urban environment, as well as black and white photography and using photoshop to edit my images. I studied a photographer called Lewis Baltz who used lines and high contrasts in tonal values. My outcome from the project was one of the best outcomes I have had from a project.

Anthropocene – The Anthropocene project also helped me with developing my photography skills. I studied two photographers one called Gerry Johansson who focused on photography including high contrast in tonal ranges. The other photographer is called Andy Hughes who focused on photographing plastic waste in relation to pollution. I got to take black and white photos with a good contrast in tones and colourful images with high contrast of plastic waste on beaches.

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