For this photoshoot, I was inspired by Marcelo Monreal. I began the editing process by first selecting an image of my model where she was slightly on her side (which would allow me to bring her face out to the side later). I then used the object selection tool to create an outline around the model then pressed layer via copy. I then dragged this cut out onto a blank white piece of A4 paper.
Next I used the lasso tool to make a shape on her face and then dragged out that shape to the side to give the illusion of a mask coming off of her face, revealing her true self. I then went onto google and searched up yellow and blue botanical flower prints. I chose these colours as the model is from Sweden and the colours seen on their flag is blue and yellow. This made my idea more personal and about identity as I incorporated her heritage into the image, which is a part of her identity.
Once I had selected a flower, I used the object select tool to make a cut-out of the flower and dragged it onto the model. Then, I had to bring the flower layer below the face cut out so that the flowers were behind the model. I repeated this step many times until I had the desired amount of flowers. I also experimented with adding a Swedish flag amongst the flowers. Finally, I experimented with different background colours and layouts. Ultimately, I decided to add an image of a Swedish newspaper in the corner in order to emphasise the point of the image being about showing her identity. I then tried different colours for the background eg red, blue and yellow. I think the red background made the model pop the most due to the extreme contrast between the black and white model and the red in the background.
Image that inspired my idea:
This is the photograph of the model I decided to use and the kinds of flowers I wanted to incorporate in my design.
Overall, I like how this idea came out as I managed to successfully resemble the work of Marcelo Monreal but was still able to add my own personal take on it by making the flowers inside of the models head be about her identity by showing the colours of the Sweden flag (which is where she is from). I also liked the idea of adding a rip into the background and adding an extract from a Swedish newspaper to emphasise the point of image being about her identity in the form of her heritage/ upbringing. Next time I would like to experiment with people from other cultures and instead of flowers, add objects that are associated with that place so it makes it clearer what I’m trying to convey.
In what way does Sian Davey and Nick Haymes explore teenage stereotypes through their work?
Introduction
I am studying teenage stereotypes. I chose to study this topic as challenging teenage stereotypes is key as it promotes individuality and expressing yourself, reduces harmful representations, and encourages personal development. When these stereotypes are challenged, teenagers are given the freedom to express themselves without being restricted by unrealistic expectations, allowing them to explore themselves without judgement. These stereotypes often portray teens as rebellious, lazy, or overly dramatic. This can negatively affect their self-esteem and mental health if overthought.
By shutting down these negative concepts, society creates an environment that recognises the abilities of young people, encouraging them to develop in a responsible and confident way. Additionally, challenging stereotypes helps build more respectful relationships between generations, as adults are encouraged and known to see teenagers as complicated but however, are very capable individuals. Inclusivity is shown by acknowledging the diversity of teen experiences. This may vary based on culture and background. It ensures that all teens are given equal opportunities to succeed.
To support my findings in this topic, I researched and looked in to the artists Nick Haymes and Sian Davey. Nick Haymes is a visual artist and photographer born in Stratford Upon Avon (UK), living and working in Los Angeles. Haymes studied fine art, but dropped out in his second year. When using a fake ID under a friend’s name, he in due course studied photography at SVA and ICP. In 2010 Haymes started Little Big Man books and gallery. Davey is a photographer with a background in fine art and social policy, who worked for fifteen years as a humanist Buddhist psychotherapist. She was born in Brighton, United Kingdom, 1964. She is based in Devon, United Kingdom. I will be responding to their work through a photobook. I’ll use these artists as references; explore and recreate their ideas and themes in my own way. I’ll use them as inspiration, analyse their images and find relationships between teenage stereotypes and their work.
Both artists use photography to explore identity, emotion, and the lives of teenagers, challenging stereotypical representations often found in media and culture. Their work draws on themes of emotional depth and personal growth, moving beyond the typical portrayal of teenagers as rebellious.
I intend to respond to Nick Haymes and Sian Daveys work by exploring the styles of their pictures and focus on subjects they focus on. To respond to teenage stereotypes, I want to focus on both sides of these stereotypes. I want to capture moments where teens are fitting these stereotypes, and also rejecting them by showing teens don’t have to fit these stereotypes. I am aware there are many teenagers who are do fit the accusations made, however, many teenagers are different, and don’t fit these stereotypes but are still put in a class where people think we are all the same.
Youth Subcultures
The cultural studies approach, particularly through theorists like Stuart Hall and Dick Hebdige, examines youth subcultures as expressions of resistance. These subcultures, from punk to hip-hop to goth, offer a critique of mainstream society. Teenage subcultures are often stereotyped in the media as rebellious or deviant, yet they also represent forms of resistance to cultural norms, through music, fashion, and language. These representations in photography and art show teenagers navigating tensions between individuality and conformity.
Resistance and Identity Formation: The idea of resistance is central to understanding teenage stereotypes in visual culture. Teens are often depicted as resisting adult authority, whether through the rebellious “bad boy” stereotype or the angsty, misunderstood “teenager” trope. Visual culture often frames them in opposition to adult norms, whether through their style (e.g., punk fashion, goth makeup) or their behaviour (e.g., defiance or disengagement).
‘Identity is never singular but is multiply constructed across intersecting and antagonistic discourses, practices and positions.’ – Stuart Hall
I agree with this statement made by Stuart Hall, as your identity is built with not only yourself, but your surroundings too. I do believe that negative, as well as positive, experiences create what kind of person you become. The people you surround yourself with play a major role in who you are today.
Hegemony: The theory of cultural hegemony, as developed by Antonio Gramsci, is helpful in understanding how dominant ideologies shape and control the representation of teenagers. Stereotypical depictions of teens in visual culture often reflect the values and interests of the adult-dominated culture, reinforcing ideas about how teenagers should behave, what they should desire, and who they are supposed to be.
Before puberty the child’s personality has not yet formed and it is easier to guide its life and make it acquire specific habits of order, discipline, and work. – Antonio Gramsci
I agree with this statement Antonio Gramsci has made as, when you are young, decisions are made for you, there is no feeling of self inflicted power. Adults are more able to control the youths life when young and not as capable.
Sian Davey
Sian Davey’s intimate, quiet portraits emphasise vulnerability and the complexity of teenage identity. This approach can be seen as a response to movements in art like Feminism and Humanism which have encouraged a more significant view of personal and social identity, rejecting simplified views of gender, age, and social roles. Davey’s work challenges the stereotypical representation of teens in what adults would call a ‘crisis’, instead focusing on their inner worlds and the importance of growing up. This reflects an understanding of identity that rejects ‘one-size-fits-all’ narratives. Sian Davey had spent years developing a project called ‘Looking For Alice’. This was a documentary photo project about her youngest daughter, who was born with Down’s Syndrome. It won many awards, bringing issues of social policy into the spotlight. She presumed her other children were relieved not to have the camera always on them. In reality, her 16-year-old daughter Martha felt a little left out. That opened the door to another project; one where Davey shifted from parent to photographer. She got to experience what most teenagers keep secret.
My own images:
Nick Haymes
My inspiration for using Nick Haymes as my artist reference was his project “The Last Survivor is the First Suspect”. It is a project captured between 2005 and 2009 by photographer Nick Haymes. It is a record of a drifting community of young friends based mainly between two geographic points; Southern California and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The book’s narrative merges a sense of joy in documenting friendships and bonds, and also a sense of dread that would ultimately peak in a series of tragedies. Living in New York since 2000, Haymes has worked over the last 7 years with some of the most important magazines worldwide: i-D, Dazed And Confused, Index, The Face, Vogue, TeenVogue, Another Magazine, Arena, Capricious and the Journal to name a few. Through these networks he has gained access to a whole scene of diverse worlds and tribes, which then brought Nick’s personal work closer to a particular atmosphere, made of family members, friends, and their inner sceneries. His work captured my eye and I wanted to create work that was similar to his. I like the way he presents his images and captures all the aspects of teenage life.
Conclusion
Similarities: Both artists show the depths of teenage stereotypes. Both Davey and Haymes focus their photography on personal subjects that are close to them, whether that’s family, relationships, or their own worlds. Davey’s work explores themes of motherhood and looking at identity, while Haymes has been known to document the intimacy and complications of his own life. They both present raw, unfiltered emotions and connections that are portrayed through their subjects expressions and in the environments they use. They look and focus on real life settings, so making sure nothing is staged and presenting their work to reflect their topic on teenagers. In relation to my own work, I also took pictures of people who are close to me, my friends. I didn’t use any strangers in my photoshoots. I also used raw, unfiltered images so nothing was set up in my photos. I wanted my project to be natural and not set up, just like most of their photos were.
Differences: Sian Davey’s work is often looking at themes of motherhood, family, and identity. She particularly explores the emotional and psychological experiences of raising children. Nick Haymes’ on the other hand, is often looking at the complications of relationships and youth. His work tends to often convey a sense of emotional uncertainty and the search for feeling like you belong. Their differences are in the tone, style, and range of their projects, with Davey focusing on intimate portraiture, and Haymes exploring emotional landscapes with a more conceptual and environmental lens. In relation to my own work, I feel like I relate to Nick Haymes more. I explored the themes of emotional uncertainty and wanted my photos to create a story of what teenagers are made out to be and look like. I wanted to capture these complications.
Literary sources: Go to this blog post here: Theory: Literary Sources and copy relevant key texts relating to the subject of your essay and list in alphabetical order in your bibliography. In addition, find your own key texts in relation to artists selected for in-depth analysis in your essay and list these too. These texts could be interviews with the artist, or reviews/ critique’s written by others. See useful online sites/ sources here .
Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages, page number to be used for in-text referencing etc.
Essay Question
Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
Below is a list of possible essay questions that may help you to formulate your own.
Some examples of Personal Study essays from previous students:
Essay Plan Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure
Essay question:
Opening quote
Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
Bibliography: List all relevant sources used
Essay writing: Here is a link to another blog post which will provide you with guideline about how to structure each paragraph in your essay.
How is the work of Sian Davey and Nick Haymes questioning the stereotypes of teenage lifestyles?
In what way does Sian Davey and Nick Haymes explore teenage stereotypes through their work?
Compare how Sian Davey and Nick Haymes challenge teenage stereotypes in their work?
Structure of my essay
*chosen photo* Title – Captured & Misunderstood.
In what way does Sian Davey and Nick Haymes explore teenage stereotypes through their work?
Paragraph 1 – What does your area study? Teenage stereotypes Which artists will you be analysing and why? Nick Haymes and Sian Davey How will you be responding to their work and essay question? Explore and recreate their ideas and themes/photos in my own way. Use them as inspiration. Look at their photos and find relationships between teenage stereotypes and their work.
Paragraph 1 – Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. looking at how past events, movements, and theories in art and culture have influenced the way people create and view images. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. teenagers have often been represented through certain stereotypes, like being rebellious, carefree, or obsessed with fashion and social status. These stereotypes are influenced by historical events (like cultural shifts in the ’50s or ’80s) and societal changes (such as the rise of youth culture or the influence of pop culture icons).
Paragraph 2 – Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses. Sian Davey
Paragraph 3 – Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses. Nick Haymes
Paragraph 4 – Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
My objective was to take images of women of culture working, or women working to portray the growth women fought for, for equal legalisation, pay and educational rights. Showing this, will also suggest racial growth. I aim to execute this photoshoot naturally in Barbados, and successfully show the culture of the working class locals.
This photoshoot differs to my other photoshoots as my 1st and 2nd wave photoshoot was carefully thought out, planned, used props and was staged. This linked more to Cindy Sherman as she liked staging photoshoots meanwhile making it look natural. This contrasts significantly to this photoshoot as this one relates more to the ‘ decisive moment’ as it is natural and real. I hope that my editing skills can attempt to make it look more vintage as this is suppose to aim around the 1990’s.
STAGES-
Firstly, I began to pick out the images I preferred the most by either flagging or accepting them to make it more efficient when it comes to editing the images I like. The main factors I took into account when viewing and choosing these images was very much lighting, as it was outdoors and difficult to find the correct exposure and where to stand, how realistic and natural the subject looked as she was aware I was taking these images which brings the subject to behave or change her mannerisms. Finally, I kept an eye out for background factors such as people or unwanted drinks which I definitely took into consideration. If this was the case, I could attempt to erase them in Lightroom. Not only this, I could crop my images to make sure every background or foreground element that is wanted and significant is in the frame and vice versa.
Editing
Overall
Some reasons why I like this photoshoot is because it involves racial features and growth, not only gender. I chose to do this photoshoot to emphasize successfully the rights women fought for, especially how black women struggled to gain the same legal rights. In this photoshoot, it represents culture and reveals women working as bartenders. Women working whilst gaining the same pay and recognition truly inspires me. However, I soon realised that it differs from the pattern of the rest of my photoshoot, such as posed and staged photos. Therefore, I learnt that I would like to take a different approach for my third photoshoot showing domestic abuse instead. I chose this theme as it was a major factor in the third wave feminist movement. Instead, I will take photos of my subject with bruises, linking more to Nan Goldin’s work as she experienced similar situations. I believe this will flow more seamlessly in my photobook as it will obtain throughout the same sort of images such as staging, posing etc. Not only this, they will obtain the same person which I believe will show more of a significant growth. However, I do not believe these photoshoots were a waste of time, as they show the theme of racial equality and I learnt more about lightings etc.
1. Research a photo-book and describe the story it is communicating with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.
2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)
3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design of the book and apply theory above when considering:
Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper.
Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.
Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.
1. Research a photo-book and describe the story it is communicating with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.
‘The Americans’ – Robert Frank, Published 1958.
‘The Americans’ by Robert Frank captures his Journey across 48 states of America, photographing the natural sights around the country. Through the candid approach it communicates the “everything-ness and American-ness of these pictures” ( To quote the book). Reminiscent to Henri Cartier-Breton’s ‘Europeans’, it captures street photography of the everyday lives and experiences of those of at the time. Making use of a variety of shot types, the core 3 that are present consist of close-up, mid-shots and long-shots. Like its subjects, Franks’ images consist of many types of light. Natural and unnatural, are used heavily to bring out detail and character to his images, such as with dark shadows of the day forming a stark contrast, or the warm glow of lights bringing attention to his surroundings and subjects of the photograph.
2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)
Robert Frank, 1924 – 2019.
“I was very free with the camera. I didn’t think of what would be the correct thing to do; I did what I felt good doing.” – Robert Frank
Robert Franks ‘The Americans’ explores the faces of many personalities across the United States. Travelling from state to state, the written intro from Jack Kerouac narrates his journey, bringing to life the images we later see. With many takes on the reasoning behind his journey of faces, the most popular intention behind Franks work was that he wished to photograph the America, far away from the idealised view of the American dream and instead capture the quiet America, those not given a voice or those that didn’t live in line with the vision of the ‘American way of Life’. In the theory of Frederik Trovatten, Frank within his work wanted to: Embrace imperfection, prioritise emotion over aesthetics, see a story in every frame, develop his own vision and be an observer to the world, not a performer.
In the words of the Museum of Modern Art “In a country that was not his own, Frank assumed the unique position of an outsider and voyeur who unobtrusively captured the tensions of the geographic, economic, racial, and religious diversity of the US.” “Frank captured the nation as a messy corpus, never privileging city or country, black or white, Jew or Christian, rich or poor.”.
Franks achievement through his work earned him a notable reputation in the world of photography, such as within John Szarkowski’s theory of ‘Mirrors’ and ‘Windows’. To quote Szarkowski, Robert Frank’s work “characterises opposite modes of the new photography, with its divergence between those who believe that art is a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, and those who see it as a window, through which one may better know the world.”.
Frank also notably gained awards such as the Guggenheim fellowship in 1955, the 1996 Hassebald foundation international award in photography, the 2002 Edward MacDowell medal and a doctorate in fine arts in 2015 from Nova Scotia college of Art and design University.
3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design of the book and apply theory above when considering:
Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper. – Smells like a new book, with waxy coated paper for the images.
Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both. – Black and white text are used, on the same type of paper across the entire book.
Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages. – The Book is small, with images in around an A5 format, the images are mainly landscape and positioned on the right hand side of the book, with the left, kept as an open space for the photograph title.
Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello – The book is a hard cover, featuring aswiss binding and dust jacket.
Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping. – The cover is a card like paper that features a printed image of one of his photographs on.
Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing. The title, which is literal in its meaning combines with the printed image to intrigue the spectator to the contents of the book, and how the people are presented.
Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told? – The story/subject matter is that of the American people, not any specific demographic but the mass diversity of races, ethnicity’s, religions, etc.
Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative. – The repeating motif of a star spangled banner is featured commonly through the book, images are also not fixed within one location but jump from different locations ands environment’s displaying a vibrant change in scenery.
Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts. – Images are featured on one page each, with white space to the left for the titles.
Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process. Images juxtapose themselves throughout the book, clashing from rural to urban, night to day, not focusing on image style for too long.
Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others. Use of captions (if any.) – Images are linked through their study of the American people, this varies in the people you see and where you see them throughout the book, This is emphasised from the introduction by Jack Kerouac which narrates Franks adventure across the country to capture such.
