I started by doing small adjustments to each image which included increasing the sharpness, contrast etc on Lightroom before beginning to experiment with colours.

Experiments

————– Experiment 1: ——————

For this image, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted a dark image with the light being the only thing lit up in the photo or whether I wanted a really bright and colourful image so I decided to attempt both and choose which one I liked better.

I decided to combine both these ideas, focusing on adding one colour to the the foggier image which led to this:

I like the way this edit turned out and I’d like to try and use it as a part of my final project, however, I do think I’ll struggle to make it work with the rest of my images due to how different and vibrant it is.

————– Experiment 2: ——————

For this image, I knew I wanted to use the light in order to reveal something although I wasn’t sure how I wanted it to look so I experimented with a few ideas I had.

My favourite out of the 3 experiments is the second one as I like how simplistic it is which is emphasized by the lack of colour, allowing the images to blend together better than the other experiments. I like the ideas of creating a collage using my portraits and am thinking about using something similar as a part of my final project.

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.

I decided to experiment with some double exposures and photo montaging as I had some sets of images that I wanted to pair together and wanted to explore how I could pair them together.

Experiments

————– Experiment 1: ——————

Overall, I’m happy with how this experiment turned out. I’m especially happy with the second screenshot as I like the way it looks with the face removed and I may use it as a part of my final project. Although I like how the double exposure looks, I don’t think I’ll be using it as a part of my final project as I’m unsure as to what I’ll do with it or how it’ll fit in with the rest of my images.

————– Experiment 2: ——————

I like the way the original photo montage turned out as there aren’t too many colours in it, making all the images blend together nicely. I think I could use it as a part of my final project by pairing it with a simpler and less busy image as it would create a strong contrast between them.

I flagged all the photos I liked and managed to lower my photos from roughly 800 to 200. From there, I went through all my photos again and marked all my best shots yellow, making it easier to distinguish them from the rest of my photos, leaving me with a total of 47 photos, including the older photos from when I was younger.

Current Plan + Ideas

At the moment, I plan to create some double exposures with a few of my photos, similar to some of the images below:

I also plan on experimenting with colours and their saturation which includes adding or taking colour away from certain parts of photos or taking away parts of photos all together which will lead me to having a mix of oversaturated photos and darker colourless images that I can choose from and develop further.

Some examples of this:

For this photoshoot, I went on a walk and visited some locations where I grew up, taking photos on an old camera that was used to take some photos of me when I was younger which helped create a similar vibe between the old and new images. Later, I decided that I wanted to recreate a certain photo from when I was younger and so I had a smaller photoshoot in order to explore some ideas that I could link together.

Best Shots

Locations:

Some of these photos gave me ideas on how to edit and connect all my photos together whilst the rest of them were well framed and in focus which I thought would be useful later on.

Self Portraits:

Most of these photos I chose as they were in focus or because I had a specific idea on how I wanted to edit them later on.

For this photoshoot I focused on coming up with interesting images by using props [guitar, plants, books etc] and a variety of camera angles. I found it difficult to take some of the photos as I didn’t have a tripod and had to use timer for a lot of them, meaning I wasn’t able to see what the composition of the photos were until after I’d taken them as the camera would shift slightly, however, this did also help me get some photos that I really liked due to certain things being slightly cut out of frame.

For my last photoshoot, I’m going to take photos of some places I either like or grew up near in order to separate my portraits from one another and make my project look more interesting. I also plan on finding some photos from when I was younger in order to link my current portraits with the locations, possibly through the use of juxtaposition.

Best Shots

For some of these images, I changed the exposure, contrast or vibrancy in order to decide whether I liked the photo and to check how well it would work against my other photos.

For this photoshoot, I was mostly taking close ups of my face and hands as I wanted to focus on experimenting with the camera focus and get as many details as I could in each photo so I could get an idea of what I liked an wanted to do better in future photoshoots.

From here, I decided that I wanted to take some more photos of my face from different perspectives, angles and distances in my next photoshoot along with including some props in order to get a variety of images that all link back to me in some way.

Best Shots From this Photoshoot

In all these photos, I like the framing and lighting along with where the camera is focused as it makes the images more interesting to look at and stop all the photos from looking identical to one another. Along with that, I think all these photos would work well together or with any photos I take in the future.

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My Plan

For my portrait project, I’ve decided that I want to take a series of self-portraits and link them to my own identity. In order to do this, I plan to take photos of me in a variety of ways including close ups, blurred photos [similar to Francesca Woodman’s work], facial portraits and with a variety of props. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to take photos of myself in different locations that I either grew up near or enjoy being, however, this may be difficult due to winter weather and how long it’ll take to get to each location as it could start raining once I get there or there could be bad lighting. I also plan on using some older photos from when I was younger and linking them into the project.

Images that I’m inspired by

Identity is what sets an individual apart from those surrounding them and is influenced of by a persons environment, upbringing, gender, culture and more. These factors can change how people think of others and themselves which can also lead to a lack of identity where an individual may question who they are and may feel disconnected from who they are as a person. All of these factors can affect how a person dresses/acts towards others due to their personal experience throughout life.

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Claude Cahun [1894-1954]

Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer who challenged identity, gender and social norms by taking androgynous self-portraits, looking drastically different in each portrait due to the characters they portrayed in each photoshoot. They embraced gender fluidity in their work by dressing up in different clothing [most of which society wouldn’t have accepted back then] and would pose in interesting ways, making their work easily recognisable due to their artistic flare.

“Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.”^[4]

– Claude Cahun

Angela Kelly

Angela Kelly is an Irish photographer whose work focuses on documenting women and exploring historical places. I will be taking inspiration from some of her early work, specifically her collection ‘Woman’s Identity’. In this collection, she takes a variety of self portraits, all in black and white, and focuses on how she’s changed over a period of 5 years both in her work and mind as she becomes a photographer and feminist.

“The visual history of women is an incomplete record. If we don’t make a record of our lives it’s as if we didn’t exist.” – Angela Kelly, July 1987

Diamond Cameo

A diamond cameo is when 4 oval-shaped portraits of the same person are taken and arranged into a diamond shape on a ‘carte de visite’, each portrait having the model in a different position/looking into a different direction. They were taken around 1864 onwards with a special camera that automatically moved the photos once they were taken so they could be printed in the diamond shape. Henry Mullins was a famous photographer in Jersey back in the 1840’s who took some diamond cameos, however, despite how interesting the diamond cameo looks, it wasn’t very popular as one bad photo would cause the whole cameo to be rejected and all 4 photos would have to be retaken, making it a time consuming and expensive process.

My Edits

To create these edits I pasted some of my images, making sure they’re cropped into an oval shape, onto a background and placed them into a diamond shape in order to replicate the diamond cameo style.

— Edits 1 & 2: ——————

Adding Overlays

In order to make my diamond cameos look older/aged I added some overlays by using images of scrunched and yellowed paper on a separate layer and lowered the opacity, creating a vintage-esque filter.

I prefer these edits more than my original ones as it looks similar to Henry Mullins work.

— Edits 1 & 2: ——————