First photograph – portrait photograph of me dressed up as a male (black suit and tie, beard etc.)

Second photography – portrait photograph of me dressed up as a female (dress, makeup, skirt etc.)

Third photograph – portrait photograph of me looking in the mirror dressed as a female but the reflection shows me dressed as a male (symbolises that society perceives me as a female as I look like one, but actually I’m a man and have always been one, just never knew it yet)

Fourth photograph – portrait photograph of me wearing a mask that has gender symbols drawn all over it, signifying my struggle with gender identity

Fifth photograph – a full body photograph of myself with my face blurred and scribbled out and top surgery scars being drawn under my chest (fully clothed – scars will be drawn onto my clothing)

Sixth photograph (may or may not do) – portrait photograph of myself with the use of the shutter speed technique (displaying the overwhelming sense of defeat and it being the final image of the set to show that the entire process of figuring out who I am, has consumed me and taken away who I really am)

I would like to be able to apply these photos in a series as to give off the impression of an overwhelming process that is involved in gender identity. I would like for it to be displayed as an incredible difficult journey where it eventually gets to the stage where you no longer understand what you might be and end up giving up on figuring out who you really are. Completely wiping out your loss of identity due to so many stressful experimental scenarios.

DIAMOND CAMEOS

A diamond cameo contains a portrait displayed (commonly 4 times) in circular shapes arranged in a diamond shape. Typically, the main subject would change their composure (i.e look to the left) for each picture, it then would be arranged in such a way where each separate picture is looking the opposite way. They were common in the late 19th century and were often commissioned by wealthy, upper class people or figures of monarchy/authority. They are often very informal compared to the existing portraiture of the time, which was often very serious and formal.

HENRY MULLINS

Headshots by Mullins of both Jersey men and women were produced as vignette portraits -which was a common technique used in mid to late 19th century- they were then arranged into diamond cameos.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND HENRY MULLINS

STUDIO

In the studio we did a small shoot of passport-type images, I used these images for my diamond cameo.

First I edited the images in Lightroom- turning them to black and white and resizing them- then I exported them to Adobe Photoshop.

Using the cut out tool I cut out my main subject in a circular shape then placed and arranged them on a black background.

This is my final image, I believe it lives up to the classic definition of a diamond cameo however I decided to overlay some of the portraits to create a textured, more layered effect. I changed the images to black and white to incorporate the traditional photography of the time, where images were black and white.

Overall I like the outcome of my diamond cameo experimentation, I really like the way the subject is looking in different directions, with only one image where they are not looking at the camera. I find this composition really interesting.

Your next project will be largely based on Landscapes. We will study

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