Final Outcomes

Inspired by Hannah Altman’s ‘Indoor Voices’

Inspired by Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Pictures’

Virtual Gallery

Inspired by Hannah Altman’s ‘Indoor Voices’

Inspired by Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Pictures’

Compare and Contrast to Artist References

Hannah Altman’s ‘Indoor Voices’

I personally think that my work is very similar to Hannah Altman’s in terms of displaying the relationship between a mother and daughter. I also attempted to make use of natural light, as also seen in Hannah Altman’s photos. On the other hand, I think that my photos also oppose her work as the relationship displayed in my photos appear more normal and traditional. What I mean by this is that in a lot Hannah Altman’s photos the subjects appear to be doing things such as holding an orange in their feet or sitting together on the side of a bathtub which are not things you would expect to see a mother and daughter do in person, whereas, in my photos, you would naturally expect to see a mother and daughter doing each of these things and consider them ‘normal’.

Additionally, I think these photos relate to Cindy Sherman through the use of ‘selfies’ as I took these photos of myself and my Mum by setting up a camera with a timer. Another way that my work relates to Cindy Sherman’s is by conveying female stereotypes, a mother caring for her daughter. Alternately, my work also differs to Sherman’s as she never displayed her real identity through the camera but in my photos my Mother and I aren’t depicting characters and are in fact just being ourselves.

Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Photos’

I personally think that by photos are quite similar to Justine Kurland’s in the sense that the girls are in a group outside having fun and exploring. These images also relate to Justine Kurland’s as they appear to have run away from home and are in random fields, however, the locations I took these photos weren’t anywhere near as good as Justine Kurland’s. For my photoshoot, I asked for my friends to wear jeans as they are mostly what is worn in Justine Kurland’s photos and I also made sure that we went to big, open grass spaces, similar to some of Kurland’s photos. On the other hand, my images are quite obviously less professional than Justine Kurland’s as they were taken on my phone and also went through less effort to find locations as we had no way of transport to the places we would have wanted to go.

My photos contrast to Claude Cahun’s in the sense that the girls in the photos appear confident with their identity, rather than trying to hide it. This is shown through the fact that they are just doing as they like with a smile on their face, whereas, Claude Cahun would dress up to oppose their identity and make you question whether they were actually male or female but you can clearly see that the subjects in my photos are females just living their lives.

I think that this image specifically relates to Justine Kurland’s work as the girls look like they are running away from home to go explore the outside world.

Finally, I believe that this photo also portrays the girls as runaways who are potentially exploring the woods to build somewhere to stay. This relates to Justine Kurland’s work as a lot of her work portrays the subjects to have run away from home.

Evaluation and Critique

I am very proud of all my final outcomes as I think they definitely display and define femininity through two of the most important feminine relationships, with both a Mother and friends. Both photoshoots link to Girlhood, growing up into a woman.

This is my personal favourite photo I took for this photoshoot as it was taken through the mirror, as you can see by the picture frame on the left. I also like the use of natural light as it has created shadows from the stair rails onto my face and the bottom of the stairs above. This photo gives off the impression that my Mum and I are having a nice conversation of the stairs after just getting out of bed, due to our clothing, my Mum’s body language and my facial expressions. I am very happy with this photo, therefore, I don’t think I would do anything to improve it as I just like how it looks natural.

I also like this photo as, again, you can see the use of a mirror and natural light which I think makes it much more effective and looks well-thought out.

This is one of my favourite images I took, inspired by Justine Kurland. I think that this photo relates to her work through being outside, a common theme throughout Kurland’s ‘Girl Photos’. I also think this photo relates to her work as the subjects appear to be having fun and appear to have possibly found this trampoline whilst exploring. Additionally, I like how my friend is doing a handstand as gymnastics is seen as quite a feminine thing, linking to the theme of femininity. Finally, I enjoy looking at this photo because it just looks like a very natural, caught in the moment photograph and it gives me a somewhat peaceful, free impression due to the fact that they are enjoying the outside and you can see the sea far into the distance. If I were to change this photo to improve it, I would probably step a bit further back from the trampoline so that you can see more of the field around it.