How successful was your final outcomes?

Over all, I am very proud of how my final images turned out. I think giving the pictures boarders was the right call as it makes the final pictures look more appealing. I also like that I created a variety of images, some with colour and others without since it helped me learn some new techniques during the editing process of the images. In my opinion, however, my strongest pieces came from the lighting project. This is mainly due to the fact that they are, to me, the most visually appealing since they focus solely on the model without any distractions in the background of them.

Did you realise your intentions?

For me, I had a basic idea of where I wanted the project to head but my ideas weren’t set in stone and sometimes changed throughout the project. An example of this was when I changed my idea about the border on my photos, originally planning to not add them at all but later deciding that border would frame the image making it more visually appealing. What I did know was what, who and where I wanted to take my images throughout the projects which didn’t change.

What references did you make to artists references?

I did try to focus my image on multiple artists such as Shannon O’Donnell, Cindy Sherman, etc, but my images were always following the basic ideas of their works, taking my own twists and interpretations on the concept of femininity vs masculinity. A good example of this would be how I presented femininity in my project compared to how my chosen artists did. Their images often focused around either women empowerment or typical ideologies of women, where as my images mainly concentrated on stereotypical things often associated with being feminine, hence the abundance of flowers and nature. While this is slightly different to the artists I selected, I still kept the overall theme of what is considered as femininity throughout my photos similar to what the artists did. On a more visual side of the project, I experimented with the use of black and white images to match the old timely look presented in my artists work, as a result making my images more moody and dramatic than their colour counterparts.

Is there anything you would do differently/ change etc?

If there were anything I could change or do differently it would probably be to experiment more with the mounting part of the project. While I think that using the foam board as a border is simple yet appealing, I think that I should of changed a couple of the mounting styles to be window mounts or used card instead of foam to have more of a variety for my images. Another thing I would change would be to print out more images, since I had a tough time picking out my best images from each project. Finally, I would of liked to focus more on the artists style, while I enjoyed and liked my own pieces, I still feel as though they don’t entirely link to said artists and if I were to do this project again, I would like to create more of a noticeable link between them.

How did you find the project?

Overall, I really enjoyed this project and feel as though its pushed me to do better. I enjoyed all the research that went into it too since personally the whole idea of femininity vs masculinity is something that genuinely interests me. I was a fan of the lighting project too as it helped me learn new techniques for how I take my photos, and I just think that the colourful images turned out well on the whole. Lastly, the environmental project was one that I felt went well, since my images showcased the natural environment of her room, however, I would of liked to take images else where, perhaps at school or her work.

My initial plan is to take photos of people in nature I want to keep them more simple as I plan on painting over the image later. I also want to try recreating famous paintings inspired by Tom Hunter exploring ideas of vanity and self identity.

What- my friends

when- daylight – evening

where- anywhere with thick plant and hedging – st Cathrines ,Gorey

The Garden

I want to focus on the peaceful atmosphere of Sian Davey’s ‘The Garden’. To create Images calm just focusing on the person in nature.

Tom Hunter

Paintings I want to recreate –

WHAT DID I DO?

Environmental – For this mini project I photographed a friend in a library in multiple different poses and places as that is where she spends a lot of time. I wanted each picture to be different and dynamic while it still working well with each other. I also wanted to try incorporate the school life scenario as that is what my model represents

Studio – For this one, I set my model up in the studio with the lighting placed around her in different places for me to try out. I instructed the model on different natural poses to try and took the photos in a which which complimented the model and lighting. I experimented with Rembrandt, butterfly, and back lighting.

Identity – For this set, I had my model sat in the studio and instructed them to move around while I take the photos. I had set the shutter speed low to allow as much light in as possible which creates the blurred movement effect. I wanted the model to try different expressions/movement such as screaming, smiling, spinning, etc. so keep the photos different from one another and link with my theme of identity.

WHAT WAS SUCCESSFUL?

Environmental – I think this project was very successful, I really like how the environmental portraits looked in the end. I think they were different to what most environmental portraits and I really like how well they worked together as a set. I think each pose was unique and contrasted well with the theme behind the shoot of capturing the models personality, interests, and life. The pictures also feature a range of different textures, colours and elements which is not usually included in portraiture.

Studio – What I really like about this project is how they all work together and how I have used the light in multiple different ways while keeping it looking simplistic and elegant. I especially like the back light so we can only see her silhouette because it creates a striking contrast between the background and the model which generates a dramatic yet mysterious look. I think I have effectively been able to show off all the different types of lighting and my standard portraiture skills.

Identity – I think this project turned our really well and I especially liked the long exposure which creates the sense of movement and motion while keeping them dramatic and distinctive. There is also a ghostly and blurred effect on the photos which I really enjoyed, they created abstract patterns and shapes which links very well with the theme of identity.

WHAT COULD’VE BEEN DONE BETTER?

Environmental – I think some of the images look a bit crowded with all the background colours and objects so to make the project better I think I would take a few more simplistic images to contrast well with the more crowded ones.

Studio – To make the images better, I would make sure the photos are not as dark so I don’t need to edit them as much later on.

Identity – Similarly, I think these images were very light and yellow when I did intend for them to be darker so to make the images better, I would’ve played around more with the lighting until I got to a point that I liked the lighting and the effect. I think if I had done this then the images would link better to Milica Marković. Additionally, I could’ve linked my photos more to Claude Cahun and their style of portraiture.

OVERALL ANAYSIS OF PORTARIT PROJECT

Overall, I really like how this project turned out, I loved learning about new lighting techniques (e.g. Rembrandt, butterfly) and camera setting (e.g. long exposure). I also really enjoyed exploring the femininity vs masculinity theme, I was able to have complete creative control and produce exactly what I wanted. However, I do think my environmental project could have been built on more, I think I should have done another photoshoot to complete it.

I made a virtual gallery using my strongest images from the femininity and portraiture projects. I used the ‘artsteps’ virtual gallery.

Gallery link

https://www.artsteps.com/view/646e01a09f1bb749975d9999/?currentUser

I created an account on art steps and designed my own virtual gallery using these steps:

I displayed some of my strongest images from my portrait studio project, these are my final mock images from portraiture. These images work well in the gallery as they are in black and white, as oppose to my images from the femininity project which are in colour.

WHY CHOOSE THE SUBJECT OF FEMININITY FOR THE IDENTITY PROJECT:

I chose the theme of femininity for my project as I straight away had lots of ideas in mind for photoshoots. I was inspired originally by Justine Kurland, and specifically her ‘girl pictures’ book. In this book she displays images of girls in different places but majority of her images are taken in nature, rural and countryside areas. Some of her images are staged, but some of them aren’t and the idea of this interested me to try and do the same thing, capture images of girls naturally in those kinds of settings. Kurland’s work can be analysed in different ways, however, I like the fact she represents women as being independent and free. Women don’t need men in their life to thrive and opposed to the stereotypical view of women being emotional, submissive, quiet, graceful, passive, weak, sensitive, nurturing and soft, they can also be dominant, strong and independant. Justine displays this really well through some of her images like, for example, ‘double headed spit monster’ where you can see two girls pinning a boy down, spitting on him.

HOW DID I PLAN THIS PROJECT:

Using my photoshoot plan, me and my friends completed this shoot together, we visited different places on the island, including the north coast, Rozel woodland area and different fields, to fit the theme of Justine Kurlands images. We planned to dress in basic coloured outfits, nothing too extreme. I think we successfully planned this shoot and followed through with it.

WHAT WENT WRONG IN THIS PROJECT:

I think I could of planned and carried out another photoshoot from a different perspective of femininity. I feel I could of explored the theme more with different settings and aspects of femininity. I believe my photoshoot was very successful, however, I think I would of benefitted from more of a range of images.

OVERALL:

overall, I am really happy with the outcome of my images, I feel the process of the completing the photoshoot was successful. Everything went to plan. I personally feel that this has been my strongest project so far, I think this is because I liked the theme of femininity and I enjoyed going out taking images and experimenting with them. It was also more motivating that the outcomes were good to work with.

Born in 1984 in Serbia, Milica Marković often creates self portraits about identity and her state of mind. She loves to create abstract, black and white, long exposure photographs which involves multiple different textures and patterns which makes each photograph different.

EDITING MY PHOTOS LIKE MILICA MARKOVIC

What I really like about this edit that it is almost the opposite of Milica Markovic (with the colours) so it still links to them while letting the pictures be there own and still letting me add my own ideas. I see these edits more as my twist of Milica Markovics photographs compared to me just copying her.

The editing:

Lighting techniques

For lighting techniques I did lots of experimenting in the studio to try and replicate different types of lighting for example Rembrandt lighting, Butterfly lighting and playing around with silhouettes. Most of these images were successful however the silhouette images weren’t as successful as I’d hoped as I think our light source wasn’t sufficient for the amount of light required to make a sharp silhouette.

Double exposure

When looking at double exposure I discovered that there are two techniques that can be used to create this unique style of image. This includes changing the setting on the camera to allow multiple shots that then get layered together, or using photoshop to layer images and changing the opacity of them until you get the desired effect.

In my opinion, I think these images I produced turned out to be very successful and I really like this style of image and enjoyed learning how to set the camera up to take photos like this.

Environmental portraits

For the environmental portrait project I tried to capture people in their natural environment so took my camera around with me and for some images shot my friends doing their everyday things such as messing around with friends outside, sitting around a table at one of my friends houses and around school.

For other images I used other people, for example, my parents. I attempted to shoot them doing their jobs/hobbies such as my mum, on the left, is a flower farmer so I decided it would be appropriate to shoot in her polytunnel as that’s where she spends a lot of her time. For my dad, on the right, he spends a lot of his time in his log shed cutting up wood so I decided to get some images of him here as I think both of these settings show aspects of the persons personality and tells you a bit about them. For this reason, I think these images are very successful outcomes as they enable you to learn about the person being photographed and learn their story.

Binary opposites

I decided to look at binary opposites for part of the femininity vs masculinity project and produced some images that use the binary opposites of:

Boy/Girl and Black/White

For the Black/White opposition I not only edited the image to be monochrome but also made the girl in the image to wear white and the boy to wear black so that the opposition was obvious and to make a clear contrast between the two people.

Inspired shoots

For my inspired shoot I chose to look at the artist Clare Rae. Her weird style of images caught my attention because of the awkward positions she captures and so I thought it would be interesting to try and create some images inspired by this.

For these images, I took most of them in the studio and used a chair as a prop to climb on and experiment with strange ways of standing and posing. Then after that we decided to take some shots on a staircase as Clare Rae has some with a similar setting.

Femininity

For my Masculinity and Femininity project I decided to create documentary style images inspired by Justine Kurland’s book however I decided to do this around the girls in my friend group. I ensured these images gave the authentic documentary style feeling by brining my camera with me whenever I went out and capturing genuine moments without staging it. This enabled me to capture genuine emotions and create a genuine feeling of fun and friendship.

Summary

Overall I think this project was very successful as I produced some really effective outcomes. My favourite part of this topic was looking at ‘Girl pictures’ by Justine Kurland as I really like her style of her work and I enjoyed shooting + editing the inspired images. I also enjoyed playing with aspects such as double exposure as I found it interesting to experiment with the cameras and use components I hadn’t used before to create some really interesting final outcomes.

This is my first final outcome. I used the black board to display my final images from the femininity project. First I mounted all the images onto white foam board. Then I tried different ways of laying them out until I found the positions I liked, I then used tape to stick them down to the black board. I referred back to my mock up plan to base my layout from.

This is my second final outcome. These three images, I feel, are my strongest images from my portrait project. All three images are from different photoshoots and experiments. the left image is demonstrating Chiaroscuro lighting ( the contrasting shadows with the highlight on each half of the face). The middle image is from my double exposure shoot, where we experimented with the multi- exposure setting on the camera to create quirky images. The image on the right shows rim lighting. I enjoyed this photoshoot as it was interesting to try different compositions, my final outcomes were successful as well. These three images on a whole work well together as a final display. The monochromatic theme of black and white works well against the black board background.

This is my third final outcome. This image is my favourite image from my femininity project, so i decided it was strong enough to be displayed on its own. I mounted the image onto white foam board, then used tape to stick it onto the black board. The setting is perfect with the flowers and grass to match the countryside, nature theme. I like the composition of the image, there’s an obvious centre of interest, which is Anna; she is contrasted with her surroundings of nature. Her black jumper emphasises this idea.

I think this image represents femininity very well, from a stereotypical feminine point of view. Stereotypically, women are seen as emotional, submissive, quiet, graceful, passive, weak, sensitive, nurturing, and dainty. This is displayed through anna sitting amongst the flowers.

I think my Portrait Project turned out well and I found it very interesting, as they helped me explore different styles of portrait photography, as well as my own specific style. I think an area of my project that went well were my artist references as I became very inspired by them (especially Francesca Woodman) which made me do quite a lot of research on them. I think my photoshoot responses also linked in well with different topics, especially the femininity topic, helping me explore new techniques and and the complexity of taking portraits of others and myself. I think I was also successful in conveying a meaning through my photos, making my work more detailed and deep, especially in the femininity topic. Although finding it challenging, I explore taking photos in very different environments (like in the environmental portrait topic), and this helped my create a wider variety of responses. I believe my final outcomes are successful as they matched with each topic and showed how I can be diverse with the camera. My mounting was also quite successful, the layouts I decided turning out well and enhancing the effectiveness of the photos. Using foamboard was a good idea as it elevated my photos in a simple way.

I think I also developed my plans for parts of the project in a successful manner, as it helped me later on in the project and therefore gave me more time to focus on explaining my thoughts (like for example during the femininity photoshoots). I think this project turned out quite personal, using close friends and family for the environmental and headshots topics, as well as myself for the entire femininity and identity topic. This helped my create meaning within the photos which I believe made my outcomes stronger. I wanted the images to be more than visual pieces of media, but also something that told a piece of a story.

I was very inspired by many of the photographers I studied, especially Francesca Woodman (femininity and identity topic) and Alec Soth (environmental portraiture topic). They taught me very different techniques, but both of them also focussed on context which I found very interesting. Soth focussed on the background of his model, using clothes, accessories and different environments to create a depiction of their life story. Woodman posed nude for many of her pictures, in a range of poses that appeared both unhinged and beautiful. Her pictures portrayed her struggle with mental health, but still proving that was she in control of her body. Both of them are very unique photographers that I believe will continue to inspire me in the future. Moreover, I learned much more about depth of field (a technique Soth uses to put the focus on his models) and slow shutter speed (which helped Woodman create blurred and unique self- portraits). Identity was also a topic that this project helped me explore, as it showed me how photos can twist the truth and also show someone’s true self. Focussing on the femininity, self- portrait topic, I can also say that I analysed the concept of vulnerability, and how it is seen as a common negative stereotype of women, and how pictures can illustrate the idea of it in both a subtle and obvious manner. Moreover, this topic helped me realise how photos that portray vulnerability don’t equal to a representation of weakness, as some of such photos are some of the most powerful pictures I have ever seen.

There are aspects of this project I would wish to change however, and one of the main areas is experimenting more with the headshots topic, which I think would benefit my work. For the femininity vs masculinity project, I wish I had also explored masculinity as well as created photoshoots for this subtopic as I think it would cause my project to be more diverse and link in more with some of the artists I researched (like, for example, Claude Cahun). A technique aspect I would work on is composition and backgrounds, as at times I forgot to change it, and didn’t always end up with a completely black background which I think significantly influenced the effectiveness of my photos in a negative way. For the mounting aspect of the project, I wish my window mount was neater, to create a stronger outcome.

Clare Rae was born in 1981, lives and works in Melbourne, Australia

Clare Rae engages photography, stop motion animation and performance to navigate and defy the limitations of the everyday environments she inhabits. Her works explore gender and identity performance, tension, portraying situations that offer alternative spatial and psychological interactions between the artist and the possibilities that are held in her surrounds. Her practice engages performance and gesture within the photographic field to present an alternate and often awkward experience of subjectivity and the female body, usually the artist’s own.

Here I have put together a couple of different photos taken by Clare Rae