Out of everything I have studied and responded to throughout this photography course femininity is the one I’m very passionate about and will continue to develop/expand my knowledge around this theme which will then allow me to interpret it in a creative way which I can then reflect that creativity into a photobook which ill design as my final project. When studying this theme in year 12 the aim was to find an artist that presented femininity as ‘innocent, young, caring, healthy’, Justine Kurland had produced some really good images which demonstrated those ideologies. However, to now develop this I will be producing images which will portray the opposite of those stereotypes, it will show how as girls specifically change (being older, meeting new people, understanding themselves, temporary happiness over long term happiness) focusing on all the problems/phases most teenage girls face. My photobook will have a nostalgic yet deep emotional feeling to it as it will show femininity in the past and what girls used to do when they were younger (nostalgic) and then compare that to how lifestyles change and how femininity is now interpreted, for me personally, and how things have changed (good and bad). I have already began forming a collection of pictures which ill use, mainly trying to get candid, random, raw images whenever I get a chance. I haven’t got a strict plan for where I will take my pictures, however, I know it will include a mix of candid and staged images… specifically documenting my friendship group and juxtaposing ‘girl pictures’ by Justine Kurland as her pictures had very bright colourful tones and majority of them where taken outside on fields, by lakes. Whereas my images will have more dark tones to create emotion and that sense of nostalgia from the past, its meant to demonstrate how girls change from what they used to do for fun in the past to what they now do for fun the difference is, is that the activities for young people to do in jersey are extremely limited now. My photobook will show what my friends and I do in our spare time and what its like to be a 17/18 year old girl in Jersey, juxtaposing with Justine Kurland’s images and story. Julia Margaret Cameron along side Justine Kurland is an artist I will also be including in my essay, Julia was the first photographer to capture femininity in 1868, this links to pictorialism.
Good statement of intent, but illustrate with images to make it more interesting visually.