I decided to create my virtual gallery on a website called Artsteps.

On this website you can walk around the spaces you make.

This was my process of creating this gallery

First I chose my space to work with. I chose this space.

I started to place my photos on the walls.

I chose to split the space into sections. I did this to make the gallery look neater

I chose to use this section to show my process in making my photomontages. I thought this was a good feature to add to my gallery.

To explore what identity means to me I decided to focus on my cultural heritage. My idea is to take portraits of myself and edit them to reflect my identity and to make them more interesting to look at. I enjoy the work of photographers like Carolle Benitah, and Dryden Goodwin, and wish to incorporate their editing styles into my final pieces.

Photo shoots-

Saris-

My plan is to sew the patterns from the saris my family owns onto portraits. Saris (sometimes spelled ‘sarees’) are a traditional South Asian garment and my family own quite a lot because that is where my mum’s side of the family is originally from. They are significant to me because I would never normally get to wear one, despite it being a part of my cultural heritage. I did the photoshoot during the Christmas holidays in preparation for the project.

I did a second shoot in the studio so I could get better images, I will be using the images from that. In the studio I put them onto a white background so they can be the main focus, and just used the basic lights already on in the room.

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To edit them I mostly increased the brightness, contrast and saturation.

I most liked the patterns of the white one and the pink one, and also like how the pink one looks photographed. Pink Saris are often associated with femininity while white is often associated with purity and new beginnings, but also has connections with mourning and death. The patterns on the fabric themselves often do not have much meaning, at least, the one’s owned by my family.

Portraits-

The second shoot I am planning is some portraits which could be used to draw on or embroider into. I will take this portraits in the studio so I can use the best lighting setup I can get. These images need to be high quality as they will be used as a base for my final products.

I edited them using a variety of styles, keeping some in colour and others in black and white. I was thinking of doing another photo shoot so I had more pictures to choose from but could not find the time.

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IMAGE EDITING/EXPERIMENTATION

SET #1

The first set I chose to edit was on violence and restraint, I really liked the first image as it reminded me of the underground punk movement in the 70s- which was fuelled by violence and soon became mainstream thanks to the likes of The Sex Pistols and The Clash, introducing a new generation of teenagers to the turmoil of “punk life”

These images also reminded me of Ryan McGinley and Corinne Day’s work, showing an autobiographical display of adolescence culture.

First I started by turning each image black and white to mimic Francesca Woodman’s distinct black and white style as she rarely shot in colour.

Then I played with the exposure and contrast to create images that look like they were taken with a film camera so they did not look unnatural when I changed them in photoshop to look like a grid of polaroid images.

I wanted the two “violent” images highly contrasted so they looked shocking to the eye and stand out while the middle image (showing restraint) nearly sinks into the background as it has lots of dark negative space – demonstrating how quiet behaviours often go unnoticed.

I also turned up the texture so facial expressions and details on hands were more noticeable.

While I was editing these images on photoshop (see bottom of blog post for arrangements of sets on Adobe Photoshop Classic) I realised I didn’t like the way they lined up as two of the images were landscape while the other was portrait, so on photoshop I resized the middle image to make it more square-shaped so it would fit in with the other images better- then I exported this image back onto Photoshop.

SET #2

The second set I chose to edit was on bad habits, I really liked the third image as it looks similar to Corinne Day’s photography style with my take on it where I took the photographs from a higher angle to make the perspective look more unusual.

I decided I wanted every set to be black and white so I changed all the images into monotone and resized them to focus on the main subject of the image.

My images taken from this shoot are quite blurry and out of focus but I decided to keep them like that because I believe they look more raw and improvisational, as they show a short timeline which looks natural and intimate.

I edited all the images in the same style, playing with the texture to make the images look more grainy and heightening the contrast between black and white so the images are more drawing to the eye.

I turned up the contrast and whites while turning down the exposure and blacks to create more of a simple tonal spectrum that concentrates on the textures of the images and the main subject.

SET #3

Finally I edited my third and final set of images, these images reminded me of Francesca Woodman’s work, they carry a similar theme where identity is see through someone’s body, while their face remains anonymous.

First I changed all the images into black and white and resized them to centre on the main subject.

I wanted these images to have more of a minimal, light tonal composition to portray the idea of the pureness of the human body which is highly contrasted with the darker tones of the clothing the subject is wearing.

I turned up the contrast and whites while turning down the exposure and blacks to create more of a simple tonal spectrum that concentrates on the textures of the images and the main subject.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ARRANGEMENTS FOR ALL SETS

First I opened a new page and changed the first layer to landscape with a black background (as all the photographs are in black and white I believe this will make them stand out)

Then I imported my images into Photoshop and resized then arranged them in a way that I believe told a story about the images. After this stage I decided to experiment try and make them polaroid-style on Photoshop.

I created a new white background and resized it beneath the images so they would look like polaroid pictures. Overall I’m unsure if I like this style and if I will continue with it on all sets.

I repeated these steps with all my sets, then I flattened all the layers on each separate set to create my final sets of images.

I knew that I wanted some of my images to be bright and colourful so I experimented with a variety of colours and images in order to create a set of neon images.

Experiments

—–Experiment 1: ——————–

I like how this edit turned out and plan to use it as a part of my final project as the colours as really vibrant and work well together which I enjoy. I think it would contrast well against some of my other photos that are less vibrant and would add to the project as a whole.

—–Experiment 2: ——————–

I plan to use this photo in my final project as I really like how it turned out. I like how the vibrant colours and transparency of the plants don’t distract from the details within the photo and make it look interesting without being so busy that it looks tacky.

idea

for my second shoot I was inspired by Francesca woodman i used plain backgrounds with slightly darker lighting to give my images a dark yet soft feel inorder to portray the loss of identity or lack of.

I will use props and take images in natural lighting to try and mimic the shadows in her images. I will also use multiple angles to photograph my subject in various positions some awkward to create a similarity between my images and Woodman’s work.

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contact sheet

imported my images and started the selecting process using ctrl P for the images I wanted to keep and X for the ones I didn’t

then i went through and did a more thorough selection using the staring system 5 stars being the best images from the shoot

Then I filtered my images by flagged and stared ready for developing in Lightroom

shoot ideas

for my shoot I will be taking portraits of my friend inspired by Andreas Poupoutsis’s work I will be using a plain background to avoid pulling the focus away from the subject. Using the manual setting it will allow me to get the right depth and shadows I need I will also take some images with a low shutter speed in order to make some more surreal than the others. To really help show someone who has lost their identity might feel.

I will use a variation of flash and natural lighting and a series of angles the subject will be placed in front of a white background with a face covering to show a sense of lost identity such as in Poupoutusis’s images.

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Contact sheet

After importing the images from my second shoot I started my selecting process by using (p) and (x).

I then filtered the images by flagged and started a staring system

then I filtered them in order to just have the ones rated 5 stars visible and went into develop mode

photoshoots

For my first photoshoot I set it on a very sunny day, so that I could capture the sun reflecting out of the boys eyes, although only a few images were successful, I did manage to get 2 or 3 great images.

My second shoot was set in the studio, with 5 of my friends, here is where most of the good images came from. We tried many different lightings including Rembrandt, butterfly and silhouette and tried many different portrait ideas and positions.

Some of my images where unplanned images, that were taken in the spare of the moment as I saw an opportunity arrive. I have been collecting these images for a couple weeks.

Here I am beginning to sort through all 800 + of my photos and select the potential photos with ‘shift p’ and reject the photos that aren’t so good with ‘shift X’

Now that I have reduced my photos to around 12, I am colour coding them into portrait, object and landscape.

Now I am beginning to edit the lighting and crop my images to portray my view of lost Identity. I have changed the image to black and white to take away the personality through colours. By reducing the highlights and exposure and increasing the clarity, texture and contrast, the water dripping down the window is enhanced. This also creates the idea that tears are dripping down someone’s face.

I have changed this image to black and white, decreased the exposure, highlights and whites and increased the contrast shadows, texture and clarity to give the effect that his eyes are like glass.

more before and afters

photoshop editing examples

image 1

I started off with this black and white image of Reinaldo and Hattie.

I then took it into photoshop and started inserting DNA into the image. I took out the white background and duplicated the layer until there were 4 DNA helix’s. I think positioned them equally across the screen and set them all to linear burn so that they looked like sketches over the drawing. After a bit of trial and error I then decided hat something didn’t look quite right with the image, so I changed one of the spirals into the divide setting, making it white. This spiral represents the ‘odd one out’ or the ‘unique’ person in society.

image 2

with this image, I started off by using the smudge and blur tool to swirl their facial features out as I didn’t want their faces to be recognisable.

secondly, I used the paint tool to draw irregular scribbles over their faces and then changed the setting to blend colour burn so that the scribbles still looked part of the image.

Image 3

Firstly I started off having a few ideas about what I wanted to convey from this image, It was a lot of trial and error before I came up with the final idea. Originally I wanted to put a fingerprint over her face, and make it look like, instead of having a face, she was merely a fingerprint. However I was not satisfied with the outcome and changed my idea completely. Then after some time making decisions with other images I came up with the idea to make her face look shattered and cracked.

To achieve the cracked face, I inserted an image of cracked paint and began to experiment with how I could make it look like it was actually part of her face. After many failures, I achieved this by: firstly changing the opacity to 50%, and cropping the image down so that it was just a little bigger than her face by using the polygonal lasso tool. I then used ‘control T’ and right clicked, dropped down and selected ‘warp’. The warp tool allowed me to curve the image to combine in to her face shape and structure. After this I used the eraser tool to remove the cracking from her eyes and around her face where it shouldn’t be. Finally, I put the opacity back to 100% and used the setting multiply to stick the image to her face.

Evaluation

All the images that I am presenting here are all of my chosen images, edited so that the lighting and composition. They are in black and white in response to Claude Cahoon and Mihaela Ivanova. Another reason for using black and white is that I wanted all colours erased out of my images to cancel out assumption, stereotyping and personality through choice of colours. I have produced a series of portraits, objects and landscapes all with a connection to my take on ‘lost identity’. I wanted to show that Identity is constantly being altered, controlled and changed by society to the point where people cant remember who they really were, or even have lost their unique identity completely. I have used many techniques in photoshop and delicate lighting editing to achieve this. In response to Mihaela Ivanova, I have produced a few slow, black and white images much like her style

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successful pieces

In this image I have increased the contrast slightly, blurred out their faces and scribbled over them in photoshop. This photo signifies the ‘Perfect Family’ on paper, but behind the scenes this family could not be so normal or perfect. The faces are scribbled out to show that none of these people truly understand their identity and how behind the fake smiles they are simply just people who are lost.

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This image is one of my favourites, I chose to take a simplistic portrait, without any photoshop. I increased the contrast and highlights, and decreased the exposure to make the neckless the key focus point. The reason I have done this is because the necklace belongs to his parents, with their initials engraved in it, which shows a strong part of his identity. I have chosen to take the image just below his face, only showing his neck and shoulder to keep his identity covered but show slight hints through the necklace. The idea behind wearing a family ring around his neck links into the theme of lost identity because it is almost like he is expected to be a certain way for his parents and may have to keep his true identity covered from them.

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In this image I have lowered the expose and increased the contrast, texture and clarity to enhance the water dropping down the window. The idea behind this image, although slightly hidden, is that the window washer signifies the way `I view identity as washed out and hidden. The water dripping down the window is highlighted and symbolised tears behind someones facade. I enjoy the realism in this image, as it was not set up, it was an idea that sprung to mind as soon as I saw it, and I only had a small period of time to take the image.

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In this image, I haven’t changed a lot to the lighting, I simply decreased the exposure and increased the contrast to really pull the couple away from the background. I have used photoshop to insert 4 DNA helix’s to signify that everyone comes from tiny, miniscule supercoiled code, that can’t be seen and that nobody ever really thinks about. You’re DNA is something that nobody can change, this links to lost identity because your identity feels confined to what you were given. For example if your DNA says you are female, then feeling like you are supposed to be a boy can make you feel trapped and confined.

in this image I have increased the contrast and whites, and decreased the exposure. In photoshop I edited cracked skin look onto her face. This image signifies the way that although she is smiling, she is fighting something behind the scenes and It is slowly breaking her identity down before she looses it. This relates to the idea that other people begin to control the way you view yourself, to the point where you actually forget the real you.

In this image I have decreased the exposure, highlights and whites and increased the contrast shadows, texture and clarity to give the effect that his eyes are like glass. I have also done this to enhance the texture of his skin, bringing out the subtle freckles on his face. I wanted to make his eyes look like glass reflecting light to signify that people can be fragile on the inside, however the identity that we all see may not show that. In photoshop I have edited hypnotising spirals into his eyes, although hard to notice and first glance, the more you look and the image the more you can see it. I have done this to show that everything that we see on a daily basis is altering our identity without us realising, from what people are wearing to what they are doing, saying and how their body language is.

Inspiration

My main inspirations for this project are Kensuke Koike and Yoshikatsu Fujii, as their work links to my themes of family and age identity. To link this to my project as I’m planning to recreate some of their work, some in Photoshop and some using printed out images. Below I have recreated one of Kensuke Koike’s pieces of work. I have done this by taking three images; one of my dad, one of my uncle and one of my grandad. Firstly, I exported these images, then put them into Photoshop to that I could combine the images together.

Photo Montage

I have taken my main inspiration for the photo montage from Zed Nelson, who focuses on making sequences of monochromatic family photos to tell a story. This piece below is similar to his as its part of a sequence and not just one image. Also, these images are edited in the same style (these were originally black and white) whilst Nelson’s are edited to create a sense of authenticity.

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Above I have created a photo montage/ juxtaposition of my grandparents of my mums side (left) and my great grandparents (right) at their weddings. This is still inspired by Nelson however I am just merging his style of my own, and relating it to my family and these individuals in the images never met each other. It’s interesting how you can also see the differences and similarities in details such as the weddings dresses and suits.

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Also, these images are edited in the same style (these were originally black and white) whilst Nelson’s are edited to create a sense of authenticity. In contrast, my images are placed in this order to juxtaposed each other, firstly they are placed in chronological order as my dads family (left) are older than my mums (right). I selected these particular images to juxtapose how my grandparents on my dads side were brought up compared to my grandparents on my mums. As my dads side were brought up on a Jersey farm and my mums grew up in Scotland and look like they lived a more comfortable life.

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Here I have combined 3 images, one of my grandparents wedding, one of my great grandparents weddings and one of my great grandfather on my dads side, who unfortunately lost his legs to gangrene infection during World War I along with my great grandmother and one of my great aunts. I placed these images in this order so that the family’s way of life can be compared. With my grandparents on my mums side obviously having grown up decades after the affects of World War I affected my great grandparents lives.

This piece is composed of one image of my mum when was around 6 (left) and a photograph of my grandmother on my dads side when she was 3 (left). I like how the difference in the colour tones of the images make for the start of the juxtaposition, as these were taken around 30 years apart. However, these two women have had a major influence of my life today and will continue to do so.

Multi Exposure

The ideas for my multi exposure work came to mind after researching and recreating Zed Nelson’s work. Despite him not creating multi exposure edits, I thought instead of creating a story through images I could combine objects relating to my family, and my family members themselves. To create these pieces of work I placed the 2-3 photos in photoshop and edited the opacity, this means that one image becomes more prominent than the other, creating a interesting merged affect.

The main object of this image is the miners lamp statue you can see in between the 2nd and 3rd person. I have placed it here next to my great grandfather as he was also a man of trade, as he served in World War I on the frontline trenches, where he unfortunately was infected with gangrene and lost both of his legs, the original image was taken decades after he returned home safely. These photographs link as my grandad (also on my dads side but there weren’t related) was a man of his trade, working down in the coal mines during the 1960’s.

Here I have created an image composed of my grandad’s miners lamp statue, my dad and, my brother. The aim of this piece was to link all three generations of my family members together through both primary images and physical objects. Furthermore, I like how the people in the image aren’t as clear as the statue, implying that the roots of the family are just as important as what family members are alive today.

Failures

Why it was a unsuccessful: The main problem with this image is the clarity, even though I previously knew my first photos weren’t good quality, mostly due to the bad quality lighting the images were taken in, putting them in black and white and increasing the dehaze seemed to fix this problem enough. Also, I did take the three different images at slightly different angles, and additionally in different lighting, meaning that the sizes of the triangle sections were always going to be different sizes and therefore not proportionate.

Why it could be used: This piece of work was originally an attempt to copy Kensuke Koike’s work, but this artist reference didn’t turn out as expected. However. I still put in on the blog to show the real process of creating final outcomes, how some go to plan and other turn out with a lack of meaning and with no links to the project. Even though this piece directing links to one of my artists, I believe that I can recreate some of Koike’s work effectively.