I have chosen to present my final outcomes in a virtual gallery, I chose a particular layout by using my most usual and creative final photo on a wall by it’s self I chose to do this as it is out there to compared the rest of my final outcomes but I don’t dislike it. However it is following the idea of absurdism a lot more than the rest so I didn’t want to take away from the other shots as the meaning could be glossed over if they started to get too unusual. To keep with this idea of keeping the photos uncomplicated enough to understand the meaning quickly I did use frames to keep the photos from feeling flat against the wall but I made sure to them fairly neutral by only using black and white frames which also works with the photos being black and white. A lot of thought went into how to display each shot in the gallery, things like the photos taking up most the wall was important to me as I wanted the photos to feel daunting and real. By also using a pattern for the frames it separates each photo and gets people to separate them in their mind. This also links to why I chose a more complex frame for the more extravagant image as it matches the photo better than a basic frame does.

Final Best Image

This is my strongest image overall for many reasons, it first caught my eye because the model wasn’t looking at the camera and instead placed herself slightly off centre in the framing of the shot. The model fills the frame as I chose to use a close cropped framing and a plain background to keep the focus on the model and not the background or anything around her. Inspired by Kayla Varley and Hannah Altman the close cropped, glitter and makeup look in scattered through out the shoot and this image I chose to edit in the style of Sherman’s work. I wanted to show the link between femininity and what it takes to be ‘feminine’. By using a mix of silver and gold glitter which is commonly associated with winning something or being precious. To add to this I got the model to wear a tiara to further add to the precious idea as people commonly say beauty is pain but then say as women we should be soft and gentle without being too princess like. This is all rather confusing to anyone especially teenage girls so through this photo I have pulled peoples attention to different parts of the model, one of her eyes, one side of her collar bone and the tiara. By using the lasso tool it allowed me to create free hand designs for the parts I have cut out of the the photo and recoloured, I didn’t want set shapes as I wanted the photo to keep its raw look as much as possible.

Comparing Photographers Work and My Final Outcomes

Cindy Sherman

On the left is Cindy Sherman’s and mine is on the right. Having the images side by side really helps me look at what I have done well and what I could look at improving if I was to do it again. There are some clear differences in that Sherman’s work is down more of the absurdism route where as mine is looking at more what is expected. However this also is due to Sherman’s work is aiming to be someone else she dresses up as characters and even though it herself in photos she does not consider them self portraits, where as with my work I was taking a photo of a model posing but the model was my ‘character’ dressing how I suggested, with untamed hair, and of course the glitter inspired by Altman’s work of a similar theme. I did keep to the idea of having a black and white base photo and the cut-outs in colour but I chose to cut out parts of the same photo and not move them so instead it’s just a glance at the person underneath the black and white where as Sherman’s work has manipulated multiple images and pulled them into a large collage of sorts.

Kayla Varley

I liked Sherman’s work and took a large amount of editing inspiration from her but for a large portion of the shoot I was focused on getting shots similar to Varley’s work, specifically her beauty work. Her style is unusual looking at different angles and bright, interesting makeup a lot of the time. This inspired me to look into using angles other than straight on and using lighting to my advantage. Lighting is a huge part of Varley’s work and it provoked me to look at how artificial lighting could have been used to make the glitter stand out, so I used a flash and a small torch to get a shine onto the glitter so it felt in cooperated into the photo and not just placed onto the models face. Varley also uses closely cropped angles focusing on the models face or parts of their face over full body shots which I thought was an interesting idea nd implemented in my own photography.

To begin my editing process I started with this photo, it was already a good photo and I felt it gets the point across quite well, that being that a largely feminine thing is too claim ‘beauty is pain’ when doing painful or uncomfortable things on the premise of social expectations and stereotypes. I didn’t dislike the photo in colour but I feel the high contrast black and white makes the photo as it has a moody, emotive feel to it. This also benefitted some of the props like the tiara before it wasn’t overly noticeable but now it has added highlights to the photo and contributes to the overall look and feel of the image. The highlights now being a lot more visible also helped the lip gloss sheen to show up and balance the models overall complexion.

I decided to make another image black and white before moving onto trying different techniques. This allowed me to get a feel of what the shoot required in terms of editing as the lighting and composition is relatively similar throughout the shoot. I actually think the photos largely benefit not only compositionally form the change to black and white but also emotively as they appear a lot bolder and stronger in black and white as well as complementing the models look.

This is a photo I edited, inspired by Cindy Sherman I used the lasso tool to cut out certain areas of the photo and bring the colour back, I loved the original image and it was a strong image however this only improves the idea of the shoot. Having the bulk of the photo in low contrast, black and white allows the highlighted bits to really be noticed and focused on when looking at the image.

This is the final edit I did and was heavily inspired by absurdism. This was the most creative edit I did in the controlled conditions and I don’t dislike the final outcome but I think it has strayed quite far from my original intentions.

I have posted my presentation of my best final outcomes in a separate blog post.

Before the controlled conditions I want to make sure that I have tested editing techniques and worked out what exactly I want to do.

I started by adjusting the settings in Lightroom to create a better balanced well rounded image. This included adding texture and reducing the highlights before reducing the saturation to make the image black and white.

By then taking the image onto photoshop I could manipulate the busyness of the plug socket and the teddies tail that I felt didn’t add to the image and ended up making it seem messy and unfinished.

For the next shot I wanted to try and use some of the close up detail photos. These were inspired by Kayla Varley’s work with unusual angles and bold makeup, I have edited them by turning parts black and white and bright colours have been left in colour.

For my final test I tried a style heavily inspired by Cindy Sherman’s editing work and Varley’s photography style. I did this as I didn’t love my previous edits as I don’t think they show the theme well. So to do this I made sure I had a high quality image and then put it on photoshop to allow me to use the lasso tool to cut parts of the image out and move them. By then using -image-adjustments-colouring on the moved layer it allowed me to change the colour of the ,moved square to make it more noticeable. I love the outcome of this photo and it blends my inspiration together very well taking Varley’s photography style, Sherman’s editing style and Altman’s model presentation. I also think this shows the message I was trying to get across with the theme of femininity and masculinity, as I was heavily inspired by the absurdism idea and showing typical female stereotypes of beauty and being uncomfortable in who you are or simply not knowing who you are which is are all common things as a teenage girl.

This shoot was by far my strongest one, I have many images I like the RAW outcomes of and I would love to go onto edit in more detail. The ones highlighted in green are my strongest outcomes. I looked for certain elements within my photos when selecting my best shots, from good focus to the models looking relaxed and fitting the theme with her facial expressions.

These are a few examples of photos marked in green, I will go onto to do some test edits to finalise ideas before the controlled conditions. Overall I happy with the results of this shoot and it made me try creative poses and angles which ended up being really fun with some great results.

I have marked the photos with a colour coding system so the green ones are the ones I like and are good photos where as the red and yellow aren’t as strong or I just don’t think they are what I intended. For this shoot I chose to do self portraits inspired by Kayla Varley’s work of herself with close up angles and unusual composition but strategic focusing. I found while there was a couple of photos I liked there was only one that was what I originally intended to get. (pictured below) I will now go onto look at my work from other shoots and pick the best ones to edit and produce my final outcomes.

This is my strongest photo prior to editing as my eyes are in focus where as my nose is out of focus drawing the attention to my eyes. I also like how the smaller less noticeable details are visible like the freckles scattered across my nose. I like how subtle the glitter ‘tears’ are in this shot but for the next shoot I will definitely try some bolder glitter that stands out better. The framing of the shot is similar to that of Varley’s work with the close crop and close up view of the subjects face.

This photoshoot was another creative concept however after 59 photos it wasn’t working the way I wanted and I actually preferred the previous shoots results. However I did get some good photos as featured below.

While these are good results they aren’t what I wanted and I think the message would be stronger if I draw more inspiration from Sherman’s work. I did here in the sense I got the model to dress up and ‘not be herself’ but I think the message is over shadowed but the general shock of first glancing at the photo. I don’t think the over all look of the photo with the orange wall and window frames are quite distracting to compared a blank wall.

Mind map

I will use two different types of models I will use myself and I will use someone else, a friend perhaps. It is important to me that I am not just the main subject of the photos as everyone’s idea of femininity is different to others, it’s an ever changing definition.

Photoshoot One

Photoshoot Two

Intentionally ridiculous or bizarre behaviour or character.

I am looking at this style of photography because it links well to the idea of femininity and masculinity. I have found most people assume class anything unusual or absurd as masculine rather than feminine stemming from the idea that boys will be boys. This style allows for the presentation of women doing absurd things without being classed as masculine or just odd and in fact being creative.

In the mood board of photos above there are many different examples from having hand edited images and spliced them together to big expressions and close ups of the model. I love the idea of exploring the darker parts of femininity and that not everything is soft and perfect all the time like the classical depictions of a feminine person or thing.

Hannah Altman

Altman is a Jewish-American photographer born in new Jersey but now living and working in Boston. Her work tends to portray folklore, linage, memory and narrative. Particularly known for her work with natural lighting and in cooperating aspects of Jewish culture. She actually began photography as a child to comment on her near-sightedness and throughout her life she continued into the photographer she is now, having many qualifications in photography. She mainly garnered attention when she posted her work as a 19 year old, using glitter to show bodily functions of a woman in a project called ‘and everything nice’ this quickly gained attention from many major magazine companies. Over time she has continued developing her style to the unique and noticeable style she has now. One of her more recent projects is ‘we will return to you’ (2023) which is a series of portraits using natural lighting and interesting poses to make the viewer ask questions and look deeper into the telling of Jewish culture.

Mood board

Image Analysis

I chose this photo as it is a good example of a particular project of Altman’s I like. The project (and everything nice) went viral over night on Tumblr when Altman posted it in February of 2015. As a young collage student (19) she took the photography world by storm. Not only the photography world was impressed but the rest of the world, this was a comment on the progress on how we talk about physical image and gender expectations. Unlike most photographers Altman chose not to pick ‘a best shot’ for this shoot and instead let the photos speak for themselves and create different equally important reactions for each viewer. This photo in particular sparks my interest as nosebleeds are part of everyday life for everyone no matter of gender, age etc. However I like how it’s suggesting that women are still expected to make everything glamorous even in things we can’t help. I think there is this idea still present now, though much reduced, that as women we need to be perfect all the time and everything we do needs to be feminine. I like how the photo is composed with a close frame cropping and centring the ‘nose bleed’ and by making it the focus, it forces the viewer to look at it which we all tend to flex away from and grimace at normally, however it is just part of life. The background is filled by the the rest of the model but is very out of focus. I also wonder if Altman also wanted to comment on the idea that women wear red lipstick when they want to be bold and feel confident in their looks and when society expects them to, like at a ball. It looks realistic as the glitter is messy and not a single line but a stream that goes down the models face and in her mouth and on the models nose.

Kayla Varley is a fashion/editorial/advertising photographer working between London, NYC and LA. Having started her career by taking photos at 13 to tap into her emotions. Her work hasn’t strayed far from the captivating emotion filled shots, throughout her career. As she grew up using photography to document her life, it ended up becoming all she wanted to do, resulting in her attending in her moving to LA in 2010 to attend the Art Centre Collage of Design. Her more recent work focuses on fashion but she never strays too far from her roots of capturing the joy and kidlike playfulness of connecting with another person whether that be another person in the shot or the photographer, Varley, herself. I have done additional research on Varley as I love her work and my inspiration stems from a mix of her work and the absurdism movement as well of other photographers work and my own imagination.

Kayla Varley

Analysis of one of Varley’s Photos

This is the photo I picked as it is great example of Varley’s work (beauty) it also has elements within it that I love and want to include in my own work. The cropping of the image is rather unusual as it isn’t centred or following any of the typical rules like the rule of thirds instead it is close to the camera and is an angle that wold normally be considered bad or at the least conventual which it is, however this angle draws the focus to the model and nothing else. While this is a cool shot it is also an advertisement for the eyeshadow so the blank white background, well lit and the fact the only bit in full focus is the eyeshadow is a purposeful move from Varley. However I think it’s a great way of getting peoples attention and still being playful and creative while creating an advertisement. Varley has also made sure the photo is well lit which is how all of her work is, bright, airy and cheery, in fact she has been quoted to say ‘Your dream location to shoot?’ – ‘A giant empty space with tons of light and shadows. It could be anywhere.’ I think this shows in the photo above that unlike many photographers she actually draws complete inspiration and results for the photo from the model in front of her and wants to show the model as a happy character and a person as themselves and not what is around them, influencing them. I love the idea of drawing from a person themselves to portray an idea or a situation from daily life and Varley does this incredibly well in all of her work not just the photo above.

I would love to mix this style of playfulness and unique angles with the style of absurdism . I think they would complement each other very well and will create some strong images for femininity and how different it can look.