For this photoshoot, Instead of the lighting studio, I would like to take some Cindy Sherman- type images in black and white. For this I would take them at a house which is an easy and accessible place to take photos. I chose to pick a house that gives a more old- fashioned impression. I had my model Lexi hold poses that were similar to Cindy Sherman’s poses. This is in hopes to replicate some of Cindy’s work, but to also interpret her work and make it my own.

PLANNING AND PREPARATION

I chose to make this mood board to give me ideas on what I want to incorporate when it comes to my Cindy Sherman inspired photoshoot. I decided to cut out both photos of Cindy Sherman’s photography and photos relating to people and genres of photos that I would like to include. These ideas could consist of makeup, hair, posing and expression.

In this photoshoot my model could be in a range of positions such as:

• Leaning against a door
• Looking out the window
• Sitting/ lying on the floor
• Working in the kitchen
• Reading something
• Writing something
• Thinking about something
• Looking over her shoulder
• Looking down or up
• Looking left or right
• Staring straight into the camera lens
• Sitting in a chair

These posing and positioning ideas will help me when it comes to having ideas when taking my photos. I aim to take around 50 or more photo. These will consist of multiple poses, setups and locations around my models house. I chose this location because this house has a more older, rustic and old- fashioned impression, which I decided was the best location to take my photos, instead of using the lighting studio.

I have decided to prioritize the content such as posing, facial experiments and merely the inspiration of Cindy Sherman’s content. I will attempt to maintain good lighting and camera settings, however It is not my main priority.

Some aspects I need to remember:

• To experiment was exposure
• Keep lighting simple
• Frame my subject
• Use black and white
• Experiment with different camera settings
• Plan ahead of time
• Have a clear plan of the costume, hair and makeup I would like my model to do.
• Use Lightroom and photoshop to further edit my photos

These are 6 main photos I would like to attempt to recreate and mirror with my own photoshoot and model. I think the two main thing to help show I an recreating Cindy Sherman’s photography is costume and locations.

The costume similar to what Cindy wears are items such as:

• Long pearls
• Long dresses
• Scarves
• Aprons
• Towels
• Long coats
• Heels
• Gloves

The locations similar to where Cindy goes are places such as:

• Kitchen
• On a chair
• Bedroom
• Living room
• Bathroom
• Dining room

ALL PHOTOSHOOT PHOTOS

Here are all the photos I took for my Cindy Sherman inspired photoshoot outside of school. I decided to categorise these images through having my least favourite images of a low quality labelled red. This may be a fuzzy, blurry low quality image which is accidental or used for experimentation with camera settings. I then have my yellow images which are of a higher quality but could be possibly slightly fuzzy or have the wrong camera settings. A green category image may be an image of high quality and may be used to edit. A blue image is an image that is edited and of its highest quality.

Example of a red category image:

Example of a yellow category image:

Example of a green category image:

Example of a blue category image:

In the first 10 minutes of my photoshoot, I decided to work with a lower quality and lower exposure and lower shutter speed with camera settings. This was to achieve a certain look of older photos taken in e.g. 1980s to replicate Cindy Sherman’s lower quality images. However, I then decided that higher quality images would look more effective for my interpretation of her work.

My Camera Settings.

Example of a LOW QUALITY Cindy Sherman Image.

This image is much more grainier and lower quality which shows its age and how long ago the pictures were taken.

My Lower Quality Images.

MY BEST IMAGES

I then returned to focusing on high quality images and increased my camera settings to avoid blurriness.

I love how these photos contain a dramatized, over the top version of my usual photography. However, I really wanted to capture the drama aspect in Cindy Sherman’s work and how she uses her facial expressions to show her storylines. I feel like the costume really helped with showing the time period which these were meant to be set in. I also think the images being in black and white helped with making them look like they are from a different time.

Comparisons.

This is my photography inspired by Cindy Sherman’s work. I attempted to replicated the poses, not as much the costume or setting. I think this worked well whilst maintaining my own style but taking inspiration and referring back to Cindy’s Untitled Film Stills poses. I found that using Cindy’s work as inspiration and copying her poses made my photographs look more authentic and realistic as if they could be similar to her world.

Photoshop Edits.

• In photoshop I made this image by opening all 4 photos in 4 different tabs in Photoshop.

• I then clicked and dragged my second photo onto my first photo, I repeated this process by clicking and dragging all 3 remaining images onto the first
• I then cropped and changed the angles of my photos my moving to tilt more to the left and right.

• I then double clicked on the layer I dragged decreased the opacity, I repeated this process for all 4 photos. I made my photos have all different opacities for effect.

• I then repositioned all my photos to fit to my preference. I wanted them to have all different sizes which I think helps the picture to look more interesting.

I feel like these edits helped my editing skills and has helped me to know whether I want to use Photoshop edited images.

Statement of intent –

• What you want to explore?
• Why it matters to you?
• How you wish to develop your project?
• When and where you intend to begin your study?

Personal:

Within my work, I aim to explore history through my photography. Due to my interest In the subject I feel as if I can create personal and expressive representations of the past or follow in the documentative medium to capture how our surrounding environment has changed to now. History through photography, to me, Observes an insight into a greater knowledge of the past, and the different ways to explore it, by visually getting a picture I feel as it lasts more in a persons mind to visualise what has come before us, unlike historical texts do. From my own personal experiences, I find that to further development my historical interests I aim to seek a visual understanding of the past, whether it be a historical site or what remains from that period. To have that opportunity to express that through a creative photographic process, I want to educate through my work their historical impact and bring awareness to their significance.

I wish to develop my project through exploring visualisations of the past, such as like documentative photography. In my work however, I will stage these images to replicate this effect, to create an immersive atmosphere within my photographs to make the past lives of people more relatable to the modern day. By photographing at historical sites, I feel this better replicates their relatability to our lives today. Using LED lighting and a tripod, I will aim to photograph myself recreating these photos to further demonstrate my interests in the historical subject. Looking into local History, I aim to begin my study by looking at key historical events within the island such as the occupation. With the occupation being a large part about the Islands history I will aim to try and replicate the lives of Jerseys occupiers at their concrete constructions littered around the coast.

With the topic, documentative photography, as my main point of inspiration, I want to create a visually informative project in the form of 1-3 mini books in a box set, or one entire book. The issue I’ll explore is the unexplored sides of war such as the life’s of the individuals forced to fight and serve, In the case of the occupation, many of these types of individuals where present.

Project:

Due to my strong interest into the Second World War, I feel as if my knowledge on the subject will make an interesting documentative personal study. Creating a recreated depiction of the men stationed at Corbiere, I will base my images through the personal accounts some of these soldiers gave from CIOS annual reviews. Having personal access to the Bunkers they where physically in, written accounts from the men themselves and uniforms they would have worn, I feel this is a good stepping stone into how this project can be creatively and effectively made. I would like to do this to explore our islands history and share it with others who either aren’t aware or want to know more about our islands history. By covering the Occupiers side, I aim to tell an often untold story about their emotions and lives amongst the trapped islanders.

Mood Board

Plan

Shoot 1. candid approach first applying Cartier-Bresson and his decisive moment.

The aim for this first photoshoot would be to take candid images, capture the moment as it is, most likely adding some of Henry Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment to my images, the idea that each moment we are living can be capture at the right time, the idea of hunting for people without killing them, you are searching for a perfect place to capture the deal image. The aim is to avoid making your images staged, you just want to show up and take some photos, photos that aren’t planned and just captured on the spot. To try and recreate these images but in my own way, I’m going to go through town and observe people and see if any of them capture my eye, it may be more difficult to take some images of people in town as its quite small and people may spot me and look in direction of the camera which defeats the whole aim of the photos. I think something that might help me is instead of taking one photo of the scene in front of me, I should take multiple so that I have a selection of choice and then choose the best image for my project. When in town I could look for anything that is colourful that way my images aren’t just colourless and lifeless. I do like how many of Vivian Maier’s are in black and white, but her coloured images are powerful in showing meaning. The way that the people in the photo below are all wearing yellow, which doesn’t seem to be planned, it shows that everyone is different, but people do have similarities and similar interests. Town would be the best place for me to capture some images as its always quite busy and the is always something gong. I would need to try and go to town before it gets dark as none of Vivian’s images were taken at night time. town would also be busier during the day. 

This photo from Vivian Maier is in colour and follows a colour pattern, the main people in focus are wearing the same colour, yellow, this makes them stand out but it’s also quite unusual on how they are matching, this is most definitely staged but the way that the models aren’t paying attention to Maier camera makes it look a lot better. Each model is focused on something different which helps to see that they aren’t together, they are just minding their own business, although in this image the two males seem to be wearing the same trousers with the exact same socks which could indicate that they know each other but the idea of the image is for us to work out. It would be a really big coincidence if they didn’t know each other, however in this case I believe that they know each other but they are not bothered about how they are dressed, this seems to be normal to them, just walking round town not really bothered about the people around them, as you would do normally which shows us that what they are wearing isn’t what makes the image powerful it does help to make the image more vibrant and eye catching but that’s not the main idea of this image. It’s the idea that its a candid image, the models aren’t aware that they are being photographed therefore they are posing for an image, and if they were to pose it would change the whole idea and point of view on the image.

This image is quite powerful as it has two females staring at the camera, they are quite blurry and out of focus and the 5 men on the other side of the road are all wearing suits and look like businessmen, the lady on the right looks quite angry and judgemental whereas the other women on the left looks worried or scared, it could be a portray of events, men seem to be fearless standing on the pavement talking to each other while the ladies are looking worried and concerned or even just mad that they are in their view. “A photograph is a secret about a secret,” Diane Arbus said. In the case of Vivian Maier, the photographer was a secret, too. This could suggest that Maier’s images were quite secretive, their real meanings were never exposed, while doing some research I’ve noticed that Vivian Maier has been through some type of abuse and tends to keep very secretive and doesn’t really share anything about herself to anyone.

Plan:

Go into town and take pictures like Vivian Maier, waist level and catch people off guard, making sure they aren’t looking at the camera but at me or anywhere else. Although Vivian lives in a big city crowded with people and all these images were taken around 1949 which makes her images very old fashioned most people would wear different clothes now as generations change and people.

try not to look for things that stand out and just take photographs of things around you.

Although if colours are present they could make good images. (colours people are wearing, different types of clothes)

decisive moment (Henry Cartier-Bresson)

keep images in colour