I chose Andy Le Gresley as my artist reference he is most famous for his land scape photography of jerseys coastlines. my images are on the left and Andy Le Gresley’s images on the right.
I think i have linked my images to my artist reference quite well.
I knew there were certain photos I wanted to pair with each other so I decided to spend some time choosing what photos would be paired together.
Experimenting
—Experiment 1:———
Here, I was trying to pair a photo of me as a kid with a bright, colourful one in order to get a big contrast between both images and exaggerate how much has changed from then until now.
I like the way that both of these images work together as the paper helps create a connection between them, however, I’m unsure as to whether the paper makes them too similar to each other, making the pairing look busy/tacky.
I think these two images work well together as neither image is too busy, allowing both to stand out instead of competing with one another. I decided to pair a simpler version of the older image as the final version was too busy for my liking and didn’t work well whatsoever with the other edit.
–Experiment 2:———
Here, I was trying to pair a photo from when I was little. I knew exactly what photos I wanted to try pairing with it as I attempted to recreate the butterflies on my face during my final photoshoot.
I really like how the images look paired with one another, especially as it looks like both images are looking at each other, creating an almost sad atmosphere surrounding the images due to how different they are from one another and how their positions/completions should be switched.
I also really like how this pairing looks. I think the lack of colour helps bring both photos together as it makes the contrast between them more dramatic whilst the small pop of colour from the plaster and stickers stops the images from being too different from one another.
As my final pairings, I decided to go with these pairings:
What went well:
For my photography mock exam, I produced multiple images but only chose to use 4 as my final pieces. I am happy with the way all my images ended up coming out using photoshop and lightroom. I like the way I was inspired by multiple artists and used my own approach to create my own style of images. I am happy that I was able to include at least one of my images from when I went to Bluey Bay hotel to take some photos because I think abandoned/derelict buildings are one of the best areas to go to for a photoshoot.
What didn’t go well:
For my next mock exam project, I will make sure to take a lot more photos so I have many more options to choose from in the future. I would’ve liked to include more photos from Bouley Bay hotel but most of the photos I took didn’t turn out in the best quality. Also, I would’ve liked to have more ideas for good edits on some of the photos I took.
Conclusion:
Overall, I am very happy with my final outcomes and the work I produced.
To show all of my edited best shots, I wanted to create a virtual gallery. This will showcase them before I create my physical final outcome, with a select few images instead, which would be done by hand.
I will follow these steps in photoshop –
Creating the virtual gallery
Final piece –
For this outcome of my final pieces, I am really pleased with how it turned out. This is because I like where I have places the photos, as they fit nicely and don’t make the picture seem too overcrowded or busy, which gives it the impression that this has been a picture which someone has taken from inside a real gallery that you would see in real life. The with the use of the drop shadows, I really like how they transform the photos to look as if they are realistic frames around them which the lights are transforming as it makes them look 3D.
I also like how there’s a slight pop of colour in the middle because it shows how even if you’re in solitude, which can seem sad or lonely, you can also use books to show the positive side of reading due to the stereotype of it being depressing and shows how it is used to spread positivity and impactful/meaningful messages towards people to spread awareness of these issues. I really liked creating this “Virtual Gallery” in Photoshop because I think that it is a unique way to present your ideas, which makes it look real.
This was by far the biggest piece of work I have done for this project. I had to individually import, crop, export, edit, resize and insert 54 different photographs. This was a very time-consuming process, but I believe it was worth the time. It is telling a story of my entire family’s ancestry, going back as far as my great-great grandfather. It also includes my grandparents as children, growing up to have their own children, being my parents, leading to my parents with me.
Whilst producing my collage, I wanted it to contain one central, bordered image that would have a lasting effect on whoever was browsing my work. For this reason, the image I chose was of the flowers lain on my Grandad’s coffin. Soft, but powerful. I applied a border by drawing a rectangle around the photo after the collage was complete. I coloured the rectangle black and applied a white border stroke around the edge to make it stand out more.
After this, all that was needed was some slight readjustments to some of the images as there were a couple of minor gaps that needed filling. Once that was done I had a resulting product that I was happy with.
What is identity (in photography?)
(Social identity and loss of identity focus)
Identity itself is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. Identity in photography is more about how a photograph resembles the likeness of what appeared before the lens. So, in the case of a profile picture, family album or mug shot, identity is based on the repetition of sameness that is evidenced by the image produced by the camera.
Identity can be influenced by many things including where you grew up, the people you are around, your heritage etc.
Carole Benitah
is a French Moroccan photographer, who worked for ten years as a fashion designer before turning to photography in 2001, explores memory, family and the passage of time. I find these images very interesting as they are a fresh take on displaying emotions such as grief and the feeling of not belonging while using old family photos to link in heritage. I will definitely be using this as inspiration for my project.
Corrine Day
was a British fashion photographer, documentary photographer, and fashion model. She was a photographer whose influence on the style and perception of photography in the early 1990s and onwards has been immense. Self taught, Day brought a more documentary look to fashion imagery, in which she often included autobiographical elements. She has projects on vitality / pressures of youth.
Diana Markosian
takes an intimate approach to her photography and video storytelling, Her work is represented by Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris, France and Rose Gallery in Los Angeles, California. She has projects that focus on cultural, geographical and political identity. For example in the photos below she explores unseen parts of foreign culture and the “forgotten” people from older generations who still remember and embrace century old traditions and ideas. For example the first picture was taken on the outskirts of Havana, neighbours gathered in the street waiting for a girl to emerge from her house for her quinceañera. She uses wide shots to show the scale of the gathering, which I think she has done purely to emphasise how important this is in their culture.
Who is Claude Cahun?
Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the artist name Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae.
About her work
Cahun’s work is both political and personal and also focuses on creating work linked to the surrealist movement. Although she made sculpture, embedded herself within activism and wrote extensively, Cahun is mostly synonymous for her contributions to surrealist photography, particularly her striking self-portraits, in which she questioned societal expectations of gender years ahead of her time
These images here are my 4 final images that I have presented through the blog and through galleries. I chose to present my images in black and white because it prevents people from judging and stereotyping the models choice of colours. Also, I think that most images look a lot better in black and white due to them being basic and effective. These images are inspired by multiple artists such as, Claude Cahun, Brno Del Zou and Boogie. I have produced multiple portrait photos which are all linked to the idea of ‘loss of identity’. For my photos I used Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop to produce the edits shown in my images.
I chose to represent my images in 3 different galleries including a virtual gallery (link here: https://www.artsteps.com/view/61f11565eb9c642065b2910f/?currentUser ) because I believe it is the best way to present them due to it being slightly realistic.
In the virtual gallery I decided to put more than my 4 final outcomes and chose to use a few of my favourite images from the past around the gallery.
For my first image, I was inspired by Brno Del Zou who has done many pieces of work like this one. For this photo I used Lightroom to first make the main image look good and change features such as the contrast and exposure. After deciding that the main image looked good I exported it over to photoshop and began to edit. This photo signifies that the model has many different identity’s because it is many different headshots in one.
This image is one of my favourites due to the location and surrounding area of the shot. I was slightly inspired Claude Cahun and the way she created her images. This photo could suggest the idea of ‘faded identity’ or ‘hidden identity’ because as you can see the models features aren’t visible and they seem to be fading away into the light of the room. Also, in the window you can see a fading hand that seems to be the hand of a ‘spirit’. I was inspired to do this by a 1900s photographer S. W. Fallis who has a spirit like theme in his images.
In this image I was inspired by a photographer named ‘Boogie’ who does close up headshots in black and white. I chose this as one of my ideas because I really like the way this photo can be seen in two different perspectives such as the side profile and front of the face. This photo suggests the idea of ‘chosen identity’ because you can choose how you want to view this photo.
This image was only slightly inspired by Brno Del Zou due to the cut-outs and using multiple images in one. For this I chose two very simple images that I knew would work with this edit and curt-out long rectangles on the main headshot image and placed the side profile layer behind the main layer. This photo could suggest the idea of ‘social identity’ because the model isn’t hiding any of his facial features and doesn’t care how he looks.
I did not include this image into my final pieces. The idea of this image is ‘hidden identity’ because my model appears as a black shadow and shows no skin or facial features. Also it can be said that the model wants to be hidden from society due to being in an abandoned building. However, I didn’t use this image as my final piece because I don’t believe there is enough use of editing and it seems to be quite blurry.
What went well
For my identity mock exam project, I created a collection of images inspired by Annegret Soltau. I like the way I took my own approach to her style of work, to do this I sewed the identity into the skin of the face to create a metaphor that identity is ‘skin deep’. I focused on geographical identity including passports, maps and ID from various paces such as, Jersey, Poland and Portugal. I wanted to include multiple locations as diversity and appreciating other peoples cultures is very important to me. I believe my images turned out well and look very good with the stitching.
What I would do different
For my next project, I will start by taking more images, I photographed a total of 14 people however I only took roughly 4 images of each person, this is down to the fact that I should’ve booked the studio out or an extra hour to be able to take more images. I would also like to create a product with more of a deeper and complex meaning, although geographical identity is very important, I feel I could’ve gone a lot more in depth if I had chosen a different theme to cover and could’ve done more complex editing. I expressed more editing styles in my further editing, some of which I wish I had incorporated into my final piece.
Here is one of my images side by side with Soltaus
I plan to create images with the main characteristics of Francesca Woodman’s work but with the personality of Corinne Day and Ryan McGinley’s work, showing possible self destructive behaviours which are camouflaged by the vitality of youth and teenage culture.
CLICK ON MOODBOARD BELOW FOR BLOG POST ON INSPIRATIONS
I don’t have a set idea of what I want to photograph, my view on the identity project was that I wanted to create a set of images that show a teenagers point of view on taboo subjects that are usually censored or lectured about by adults.
PHOTOSHOOT #1
I started by taking photographs of my belongings in an almost clinical, professional way- I quickly realised that my idea of the word identity doesn’t mean professional, clean photos but more gritty and personal images that show the young side of identity; where someone’s personal identity is taken apart, sculpted and analysed by society before being put back in a broken way where one has to “fit in” before they can continue.
For my first photoshoot I used the self-timer setting on my camera and set it up on a flat surface as I didn’t have a tripod.
My first photoshoot was in a family member’s flat that they had just moved into as I really liked how empty the space looked, I was the main subject for all my images so all the images were taken on self timer and with flash to make them look more grungy and raw.
MY FAVORITE IMAGES FROM PHOTOSHOOT #1
PHOTOSHOOT #2
My second photoshoot was around my apartment building and in my bedroom, once again I was the main subject in my photos but I also took pictures of my surroundings such as my bedroom and bedroom walls.
MY FAVORITE IMAGES FROM PHOTOSHOOT #2
PHOTOSHOOT #3
My third photoshoot was outside around St Brelade’s bay and in my hotel room in the St Brelade’s Bay Hotel. I took some pictures with my friends at a local youth club then I went to the Fisherman’s chapel and the graveyard around it as well as the beach.
All my images were taken with flash and some are out of focus but I believe this gives them a cool effect.
MY FAVORITE IMAGES FROM PHOTOSHOOT #3
As well as the images I’ve taken from these photoshoots I plan to use images from past projects however as I am still unsure of what I want my images to portray and how I am going to show identity.