For this photoshoot I am going to experiment the theme of femininity through generations over a period of time. To do this I am going to use my mum as my main inspiration, and take inspiration from photos of her when she was similar to my age now. I would like to do a series of photoshoots by looking at different photos of my mum, for example looking closely at what she was wearing, doing and also the environment she was in when the photo was taken. From this I think it will be an interesting concept to see as the viewer, because we will be able to see the change in generations, showing and explaining a story just by looking at the photo, which is what Cindy Sherman did in her own way by looking at performance artists. – This is something I want to experiment with in my own portraits, so you can see the story in the photo, but also creates this performance over the generations.
Photos of my mum that I am going to recreate:
Photoshoot 2
Cindy Sherman recreated stereotypical feminine activities of what she saw from her generation. So for my second photoshoot, I am going to experiment with different feminine activities. As Cindy Sherman experiments with different personalities and identities, it would be interesting to experiment with that idea too. One idea is having the subject pose whilst applying makeup or while getting ready, so for this photoshoot I am going to take pictures I think this would be interesting creating unique and different images.
I have edited my best images from the lighting technique photoshoot. I’ve deepened the shadows on the face and background of my subject to show the lighting techniques more clearly, I have done this using photoshop.
I find these 7 unedited images were my best images in the photoshoot as all of them are very clear and really represent a backstory/ portray what a female would be seen doing or be seen as in todays society.
Detailed Analysis
Out of the 7 images I have selected I would say this image was the best out of all 7. In this image I have asked my model to just casually be using her phone as she would normally while I took a photo of her whilst she was doing that. My thoughts behind this image was to represent the society people in my generation live in as phones are the biggest trend and are owned by almost everyone, I did this to show how much young people in todays society are influenced by mobile devices which has many negatives as well as positives. Our mobile devices hold every little bit of information on what goes on in the world to little things like checking up on your friends, as you can see in this image my model is posing in front of her phone camera, this could be her taking a selfie which is very common for people, mainly girls to take part in. Furthermore, in my image I have used Chiaroscuro lighting, my image was taken in a studio using studio lighting , my image has a good contrast between light and dark where the areas of lighting are the areas that focus on the model herself and the main subject of what she’s doing.
In addition, the lighting in my image refers to the famous artist Rembrandt, using his famous technique of chiaroscuro this is where the image has a dark background and has very prominent areas of lighting which really draws the eye to the main areas of the image. As you can see in his artwork its lighting focuses on the expressions and main parts of the image which is what I tried to recreate in my images.
In this photoshoot I took photos of my friends outside rather then in the studio, as some of the photos in my artist reference are taken outside. I took photos of them standing there looking masculine.
A collection of my favourite photos from the shoot
Next steps…
Edit the photos I took from my last two photoshoots
Present the images in a collage or another composition
Here is my first photoshoot for femininity, for this photoshoot I asked my model to do positions which I thought would represent feminine behaviours and personalities. to do this I used mirrors, straight on portraits and even some images using a flower which refers to females as they are pretty, fragile and delicate as women are known to be in todays society.
MiniEvaluation :
here is my second photoshoot for femininity, for this shoot I used various different props and positions to create images that represented femininity such as using a mirror while I got my model to put on some lipstick I felt this really represented women. for another image I decided to use some headphones and got my model to pose with the headphones on as if she was listening to music.
I chose this image to relate to Cindy Sherman’s images about femininity. Things in my photo that are similar to Cindy Sherman’s photo is the way both models show the back of their heads in the camera while their reflections of their face in the mirror. I like the way both images have similar story’s in the images, for example in Cindy Sherman’s it looks like the model is fresh out the shower and in a towel, meanwhile in my photo the model is getting ready and putting on makeup. It can show the stages of being a stereotypical ‘woman’ and being stereotypically feminine. The differences between these two images are that in my photo the model is holding a prop to her face instead of just her hand like in Cindy Sherman’s.
Claude Cahun reference
I chose this image as it relates to Claude Cahun. Even though my image is more feminine they have similar styles like the model in my photo is looking towards the camera while the reflection is looking away and this is the same as Claude Cahun’s photos. I like the way that my photo contrasts to Claude Cahun’s, mine is feminine while Claude Cahun’s is more masculine, by the way she is looking at the camera. They pose and look very different but you can see the similarities within the different photos. A difference is that the model in my photo isn’t making any eye contact with the camera giving it a ‘silly’ or less serious look. Meanwhile in Cahun’s photo she is making full eye contact with the camera making it a serious and moody photo.
I decided to take my photos in a home environment using natural lighting. I used makeup for props as that is one of the main focuses of Angela Marklew’s work.
Photoshoot 1
In this photoshoot I used a female model to represent femininity. I used props such as mascara, lip gloss, and lipstick to recreate photos in a similar way to Marklew.
Best photos:
These are my best photos ,which I have labelled with a 5 star rating, which I will be editing to improve.
Editing in the style of Angela Marklew
Original photo before editing:
I chose to attempt to recreate this photo of Marklew’s as it has a feminine feel to it due to the use of lipstick as a prop. This is because lipstick is widely associated with women.
I added warmth to the photo as Angela Marklew’s photo has a warm tone to it. I also increased the highlights to make them stand out more in a similar way to her work. By using the dehaze tool the photo turned more softer rather than sharp.
I decided to rotate the photo to make it similar to the angle in Marklew’s photo.
Final photo
To make the colours more pigmented I increased the saturation and to finish I cropped the photo slightly in a similar way to Marklew’s photo. I think it is similar however the models lips are not in the same position as Angela Marklew’s as in my photo there are no teeth visible however in Marklew’s you can see the model’s teeth. I like the way it has turned out as the highlights look sharp and well defined and the shine on the lipstick casing is similar to Marklew’s.
