Photoshoot 1

For editing I decided to use other photos from photoshoot one, This Image below I tried to capture Cindy Sherman idea of the “male gaze”, but complete flip it so I’m capturing images of men instead.

The characters in Sherman’s photos are often an exaggeration of widely represented female identities. Since this exaggeration and masquerade is visible through heavy make-up or distinctive clothing, the works appear to reveal the artificial construction of what is supposed to make a person female, such as wearing clothes typical for a housewife or the extensive use of eyeliner:

So for this image I made a very traditionally “masculine photo” with my model where he has no t-shirt, and holding a breath case with a strong intimidating pose. I have cropped this image to keep the eye area away from the rule of thirds to make the body the dominating feature of this image. Keeping the eye area and the posing (of the breath case) high, which further increases the intimidation that this model creates for the viewer as he is looking down to the camera so to the viewer. :

To confuse the viewer I have edited this photo with some colour grading often associated with feminine traits like rosy red, to remove the line between masculinity and femininity. This take away a lot of the intimidation that I talked about above:

After this, I noticed that the background, not being completely black, could distract the viewers eyes from the subject and a easy way of mitigating that is by using a vignette. A lot of old photos also have naturally occurring vignettes due to incorrect camera equipment (e.g. lenses with large apertures or barrels) But adding it digitally can make your images pop and guide the viewers eyes to the subject:

I repeated this process with other photos:

Here I tried re-arranged the first photos I took to make it look more clean:

Photoshoot 2

For this image I didn’t want to overdo it in editing so I kept it simple and just merged 2 images together. One being confident and the mirror one being more insecure. It almost looks as if the foreground image is going to punch him inside the mirror, suggesting he’s insecure about himself.

For this Image below I really tried to replicate Duane Michals images with mirrors. I got my subject to hold a mirror looking into it, I also increase the lighting to create a hazy look:

ANOTHER ONE G

COMBINED:

For this one I used Images I took a while ago and was inspired by Cindy Sherman’s latest exhibition, here are some examples:

They are all very ‘ugly’ looking, giving a almost humorous effect on the viewer.

The exhibition showcases the artist’s individual series and also presents works grouped thematically around such common threads as cinema and performance; horror and the grotesque; myth, carnival, and fairy tales; and gender and class identity.

I was inspired for this photoshoot by some of Cindy Sherman’s mirror images, especially Untitled Film Still #2 by Cindy Sherman . She almost seems insecure about herself and the qualities that men have expected upon her. I will replicate this but for men instead with my images. Another artist I got inspiration from was Duane Michals. Her magic mirror of uncertainty shows a woman looking into a skewed mirror. This constant change of position in the mirror represents her uncertainty. It almost represents self consciousness which I will try to replicate in my work, where the uncertainty of masculinity is at its peak right now.

These B&W sequence of images, all with different image skewed, could show a story of self consciousness, and how her appearance is always changing. The last photo she looks directly into the camera almost like she has given up on trying to match the feminine look that people have put upon her.

Here I told my model to stand in different poses while I kept the camera at the same location. This is so I can montage them together and create interesting photos when editing. Here are A few that I liked:

The Idea for this photoshoot was to focus the image on the reflected subject from the mirror, showing the true reflection of the subject. I will need to edit them so the real subject is different from the virtual subject, since I kept the tripod the same Hight and length away it should be easy. The camera settings used are; f/4.5 (creates blurred foreground keeping the focus on the virtual subject), exposure time of 1/360 as I used 3 flash lights with a box diffuser on to light up the subject, ISO of 100 to reduce noise, and a focal length of 18mm.

This is the first photoshoot with different body parts taken and different “masculine” objects. Most of the photos had: f-11, 1/160 shutter speed, ISO-100. A low ISO was used to give higher quality photos and since we where using a flash with a box light we didn’t need to worry about having the photo being too dark or light enough but blurry as we did not use a tripod. I chose 3 images from the body parts and the items to match with each other, they needed to be good quality, have an interesting aesthetic (e.g. captured from a weird angle). Large contrast in lighting and more.

I’m trying to capture the juxtaposition between masculine features of the body and masculine objects. I will achieve this by making the photos incredibly ‘masculine’ with stereotypes like muscles, strong fragrance smell, and wires as they are usually associated with a traditional ‘mans job’. This is done to make it seem unreasonable to follow these traditions and how humans can chose there own path in life.

I was inspired a little by Claude Cajun to make the images B&W and w she composes the image (high contrast inni)

3 photos and editing process:

I chose these 3 as they are all unique and show only the body of this very attractive model. I then added a B&W filter with these settings:

I bumped the contrast a lot some of the flatter images to show more veins and muscles increasing the “masculine” look.

Now here are the object photos:

Here I put them all in photoshop to invasion all of them next to each other. Here I’m trying to communicate different masculine ideas all together, overwhelming the viewer with these social constructs.

For these photos:

I edited each one with blue colour grading for the shadows and mid tones with yellow colour grading for the highlights as its often associated with a “mans” colour, further adding to this unreasonably masculine image collection:

some photo inspiration I found online, I looked for photos that where unique and presented my views on masculinity and how the line between masculinity and femininity doesn’t really exist.

The photoshoots I’ve decided:

different body parts mixed with traditional “male” items, I will montage them next to each other and have some in B&W – DONE

use reflections (i.e. a broken mirror), the reflection is self-conscious but the real life person is happy. – use the photo below as reference for the sad photo that will be in the mirror.

Cindy Sherman – Focused on Femininity

Born in 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Cindy Sherman lives and works in New York NY. Her ground-breaking photographs have interrogated themes around representation and identity in contemporary media for over four decades.

“I am trying to make other people recognize something of themselves rather than me.” —Cindy Sherman

At the heart of Sherman’s work is the multitude of identity stereotypes (like femininity) that have arisen throughout both the history of art and the history of advertising, cinema, and media. Sherman reveals and dismantles these stereotypes as well as the mechanics of their production in creating series after series of photographs that focus on particular image-making procedures.

The “male gaze” in her work of gender identity

The feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey writes in her famous essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” about the subconscious way we see women and how they are depicted in Hollywood movies from the 1930s to the 1950s.

She argues that a lot of these movies objectify women and the female body for men’s pleasure. The black-and-white photographs of Cindy Sherman’s series Untitled Film Stills are reminiscent of movies from the 1930s to the 1950s and depict Sherman as she portrays women in different roles with the help of costumes, make-up, and wigs. They can be interpreted as challenging the male gaze mentioned by Mulvey.

This image makes the subject seem almost vulnerable, giving an eerie and creepy effect. This is because it leads to the viewer becoming an inappropriate spectator. The picture makes the audience part of a threatening situation they do not necessarily want to be a part of. It even indicates that the viewer who is only able to see the woman’s back is the one who poses a threat. Become confronted with the negative implications of the way the media – especially movies – depicts women. The male gaze is often present in Cindy Sherman’s artworks but she subtly changes the perspectives, expressions, and circumstances. The luggage to the left of her further increases her vulnerability it can be nicked inni.

Claude Cahun – freedom fighter

Defying conventional ideals of beauty and femininity with her shaven head and male attire, Claude Cahun is a perfect example of someone who pushed the boundaries of gender roles in a stereotypical society. Cahun staged images of herself that challenge the idea of the politics of gender. Cahun was championing the idea of gender fluidity way before the hashtags of today.”Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me”. Cahun made photomontages with their partner Marcel Moore (aka Suzanne Malherbe), to illustrate Cahun’s autobiographical essay Disavowed Confessions (Aveux non Avenus). The photomontages feature self-portraits in masculine and feminine guises to show the artist’s identity in flux. 

This image is a perfect example of a female breaking the stereotypes placed on them as she shaved her head and wore male clothing. “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”.

“I am in training don’t kiss me”

This is a series of photographs she took in 1927. Cahun adopts the paradoxical representation of a feminized strongman and performs various poses. Here is one of her photos from the series:

Here, Cahun breaks through gender boundaries and represents oneself simply as an active human rather than as a woman or man defined by their sex. Cahun presents an obviously constructed identity using props, highly stylized clothing, and make-up. In this photo you can see many masculine mixed wih feminine features like how she holds charmingly painted weights, psuedo-nipples are sewn onto the flat costume shirt, and even the traditional weight-lifter handlebar mustache has been displaced onto the curls of cropped hair.

Masculinity vs femininity has been a heated topic since the dawn of time. This is an example of binary opposites, which is where two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another. Using binary opposites can often be very helpful in generating ideas for a photographic project as it provides a framework. other examples include:

• good vs evil
• black vs white
• man vs nature
• young vs old
• Ignorance vs wisdom

femininity means qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of women or girls. By tackling the ideals of the female beauty, feminist photography tried to change general consciousness on the objectification of women, their role within domestic life, their own views of self.

photos that I think represent qualities of femininity:

Masculinity means qualities or traits regarded as characteristic of men or boys. Traits traditionally viewed as masculine in Western society include strength, courage, independence, leadership, and assertiveness. Many photographers try to combat these views as many men don’t feel like they match these traits.

photos that I think represent the qualities of masculinity :

Mood board

These photos are how I seen the concept of masculinity, I will try and portray my view of masculinity in my photos and how it can be troubling to specify people in only 2 groups.

portrait Photographers are always trying to not just capture you on the outside (e.g. your hair colour, your gender, size, ect). A more interesting photo would try capture who they actually are, there identity.

Identity politics

Identity politics is a tendency for people of a particular religion, ethnic group, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics. Its aim is to support and centre the concerns, agendas, and projects of particular groups, in accord with specific social and political changes.

Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign website, on which he listed 19 different identity groups for which he had specific plans. These included tribal nations, women, people with disabilities, Black Americans, military families, union members, rural Americans, older Americans, the LBGTQ+ community, veterans, the Catholic community, students/young Americans, immigrants, the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community, the Indian American community, the Jewish community, the Muslim American community, the Latino community and the Arab American community.

Identity Politics In Jersey (history of Jerriaise):

In Jersey CI, Jerriaise was the language used for many years (first seen in 12th century) and has had a rough history. It was considered a ‘farmers language’, and shamed upon if you spoke it. Many people said it was an inferior language to English so it started to die down and people reduced teaching it to there children in 1930s. However, Many people now want to bring back this heritage and culture many busses now have Jerriaise text on the back for example. Here is a link to learn more about it.

Cultural Wars

Cultural Wars area conflict between groups, especially liberal and conservative groups, that have different cultural ideals, beliefs, or philosophies.

Artist and social commentator Grayson Perry crosses the US, exploring its biggest fault lines, from race to class and identity, making art as he goes. He explores these cultural wars around America, collecting many different views on politics.

Here is a cultural war example in jersey.

Here is a cultural war example for BLM in the UK

Gender Identity:

Masculinity and femininity are not ends of a pole, but two parts of an ever-expanding circle, constantly seeking new expression in the world. We’ve been indoctrinated to see binaries where they do not exist, buying into simplistic “either/or” constructs that create false hierarchies and real inequality. Many photographer have explored this for a long time.

gender Identity your deeply-held inner feelings of whether you’re female or male, both, or neither. Your gender identity isn’t seen by others. Gender identity may be the same as the sex you were assigned at birth (cisgender) or not (transgender).

cultural Identity:

is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. In this way, cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also of the culturally identical group of members sharing the same cultural identity or upbringing.

Social Identity:

refers to the ways that people’s self-concepts are based on their membership in social groups. Examples include sports teams, religions, nationalities, occupations, sexual orientation, ethnic groups, and gender. Social identity groups can give you a sense of:

1. Belonging: Being part of a group can instill feelings of connection and unity, giving individuals the comforting sense that they’re not alone in their experiences or perspectives.
2. Purpose: Group affiliations often come with shared goals or missions, which can provide direction and purpose to individual members.
3. Self-worth: Affiliating with a group can boost self-esteem as individuals derive pride from group achievements and a positive group image.
4. Identity: Groups provide a framework to understand oneself in the context of a larger community. They can help define who you are based on shared attributes, values, or goals.

Geographical identity:

An individual or group’s sense of attachment to the country, region, city, or village in which they live. The key characteristics with which a particular country, region, city, or village is associated.

Political Identity:

Political identity is a form of social identity marking membership of certain groups that share a common struggle for a certain form of power. This can include identification with a political party, but also positions on specific political issues, nationalism, inter-ethnic relations or more abstract ideological themes.

are an illusion created by layering images (or portions of images) over the top of each other. . Artist have used these techniques to explore Surrealist Ideas and evoke dream-like imagery, or imagery that explores time / time lapse.

The plan mf:

• subject looks off into distance, with same background he turns head, looking directly into camera with a facial expression.

Here are photos of a very handsome model with a tash of editing:

Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. 

The plan:

I will take photos of my subject with deadpan expressions and other expression and merge them together, or replace different body parts to different parts of face. Another thing I could do is keep the subject the same but edit certain parts of the face to bring attention to it (make it stand out more).

With these photo-montage edits, I did not want to make it over edit them as they are both already fairly interesting photos. I used photo shop to edit both. With the bottom one I also used geometric template to add the triangles.

diamond cameo is where photos are arranged into a diamond shape, as it means all photos get equal coverage. I took 4 photos of a class mate with different angles of his face, using the studio lights and a continuous light with a soft box to add some contrast. We positioned it slightly above the subjects face, and slightly on the right. This is done to mimic a butterfly effect.

Here are the photos I took and decided to use. I colour graded and adjusted mainly just the shadows and highlights to make it look very retro like. Here are the editing setting.