For this photoshoot, I want to explore the binary opposites of masculinity and femininity, inspired by the works of Martin Parr.
‘Bored Couples’ – Martin Parr
In this photo, both subjects are positioned either side of the frame, implicating a difference between the two. This will be the general theme of the photoshoot, that both subjects will stand on both sides of the picture. To further experiment with the difference between masculinity and femininity, I will make changes to either subject to further emphasise their masculinity/femininity.
Rimini, Italy – 1999 – Martin Parr
This photo is a perfect example of the type of contrast I will be attempting in this photoshoot. In the photo, the woman is dressed flamboyantly, to impress, but the man is only wearing speedos and a hat, as that is all that he needs.
Like in this example, I want to try and create a contrast between the masculinity and the femininity by demonstrating the difference between the two with a hidden message. This could be, in the context of clothing, that the man is wearing the essentials and the woman prefers to accentuate her taste in fashion.
Photoshoot 2
For this photoshoot, I want to explore the theme of identity, inspired by the works of Claude Cahun.
‘I extend my arms’ – Claude Cahun
In this photo, everything but the hands and arms of the subject are visible. This introduces a sense of ambiguity to the identity of the subject. This is the type of ambiguity I want to experiment with in this photoshoot.
Autoportrait – 1939 – Claude Cahun
This is an example of what I can do to the photos in photoshop. I could attempt to recreate this effect with multiple different photos.
The Russian-Ghanaian artist had two solo exhibitions in 2019, at the South London Gallery and the Brooklyn Museum, New York. Since moving to London in 1991, she has continued to dedicate herself to documenting the lives of communities from the African diaspora, adding to her ongoing project Black Balloon Archive.
“I wanted to approach the subject of masculinity from a woman’s perspective. My mum made the needlepoints [of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper and Mona Lisa and Iphigenie by Anselm Feuerbach]; she began making The Last Supper when I was 15 and it took her two years to complete, so I grew up with this image. She did so many needlepoints. They were made at home and she never showed them to anyone. Like the voguing classes I documented — the girls went there for themselves, it wasn’t to entertain anyone.”
Liz Johnson Artur type of photography is very cultural and has a very specific type of clothing used, most of the photos show what the girls wear such as short crop tops and shorts, some would wear vest or maybe some basket ball shorts which doesn’t really show masculinity.
However Liz likes to recreate photos with ‘men’ wearing making up and dressing up like girls and this doesn’t necessarily represent that they are making fun of women and how women are portrayed to be like, I would say women are very soulful and like to dress up which isn’t the case for everyone as there are people who like to stay cosy and not as dress up which doesn’t make them less feminine. Also we have men dressing up as women which doesn’t make them fully women but they have a chance to express themselves, although many people have very strong opinions about how certain genders act such as men are strong and big headed and should act as if they have power and control and women are seen to be more sensible and strong working, they are more caring and they look after the children, cook dinner. Most people don’t like changing that as it can be seen as insulting to dress up as the opposite gender. This artist helps us to view why some people might be doing it since they are looking for themselves or a way to express themselves, they want to feel more connected to a certain type of gender, as different genders have different topics to discuss, such as makeup for girls and possibly sports for boys, although it isn’t wrong for other gender’s to relate to each of the topics it just shows a stereotype of what we as a society are used to. I like the idea of getting the different genders to dress up as it shows that we should accept people as a whole and let them express themselves as it could be harder for some than others.
( article found)
Liz Johnson Artur is a Ghanaian-Russian photographer based in London, England. Her work documents the lives of black people from across the African Diaspora. Her work strives to display and celebrate the normal, the vibrant and the subtle nuances of each of these people lives that she encounters. Artur has taken photographs across Europe, America, Africa and the Caribbean for more than three decades. She calls this ongoing project the Black Balloon Archive, alluding to a 1970 song lyric by Syl Johnson that describes a black balloon ‘dancing’ in the sky, which is how Artur imagines her own movement when taking photographs. This exhibition focuses on London, where Artur has lived since 1991, capturing the richness and complexity of Black British life. “What I do is people,” Artur says of her work. “But it’s those people who are my neighbours. And it’s those people who I don’t see represented anywhere.” Artur shoots exclusively on film, and here her images are printed at various sizes, materialised using traditional photographic techniques onto paper as well as applications onto fabric, tracing paper and cardboard. Artur uses these different techniques in the workbooks she has regularly made since she first picked up a camera, and the exhibition functions as an expanded version of these ongoing journals.
Femininity, Femininity is an umbrella term used to describe characteristics, behaviours and gender roles that women and girls share, for example girls and women are expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating and affectionate. Femininity can be imagined as a social construct, there is evidence that some of the behaviours that are considered feminine are shaped by culture and biology. Femininity has changed a lot over the years, for example the roles of women, personal attitudes of femininity have also developed through history. Things that were not accepted for women in the past are now accepted and encouraged.
Masculinity
Masculinity, Masculinity is also an umbrella term used to describe characteristics, behaviours and gender roles associated with men and boys, similarly to femininity, masculinity can be known as socially constructed however there is also evidence that some behaviours thought as masculine are controlled by both cultural factors and biological factors.
How identity can be influenced
identity can be influenced by place, belonging, your environment or someone’s upbringing. Identity and place or belonging are closely connected. A person’s childhood and surroundings have an impact on how they see themselves, especially when it comes to their gender. The expectations and standards that are placed in modern society have an effect on how people see their gender roles. The acceptance of different gender identities is influenced by the way someone was raised in a place. A person’s gender identity is shaped by friends, family, and social standards in their hometown. The freedoms and possibilities that are accessible to people depending on their gender are influenced by legal structures which shows the experience of gender identity. Other things like location, class, culture and race can also influence identity.
Gender Identity
Gender Identity describes how someone feels about their gender. For the majority of people there gender is the same as the sex they were at birth however for some people it is not the same.
Cultural Identity
Cultural Identity, Cultural identity is a part of a persons identity the way they see themselves. Cultural Identity can also be
Binary Opposites
Masculinity vs femininity is a binary opposite. Binary opposites are sets of related phrases or concepts that are seen as being the opposite to each other. The theories of socialists and semiotics study how language and signs contribute to a purpose are the foundation of the idea of binary opposites.
For this photoshoot I took photos of two models using a honeycomb head and a snout head on the lights. I had one person standing next to the lights and holding the coloured gels. I wanted this person to be interchanging with multiple colours such as pink, purple, red, blue, yellow, white and green.
I had one person standing next to my model and holding different shades of reflectors such as silver, gold and bronze. This was to help have the light shine onto my subjects eyes more so that there isn’t shade or shadows reflecting onto my models face. They also moved the honeycomb head to different angles to capture different angles from the light.
I had one person then sitting or standing whilst posing naturally in front of the camera for me to photograph. I told them to look at all different angles for my diamond cameos (inspired by Henry Mullins) I also asked her to do some more natural poses and for her to also do some poses either looking directly at the camera or looking in different directions and using her hands to add extra effect to her posing.
HERE ARE MY BEST IMAGES
I particularly like these photos because they show a contrast of emotions through two people. The covering of the mouth shows a tack of identity to one of the people. And I also asked my models to have different expressions to each other such as e.g. sad and happy and vies versa.
I created these images in Adobe photoshop, I think they create a sense of ‘false identity’ and mystery as they could possibly show the persons real ‘self’ or ‘story’. I really like this double exposure effect for my photos and I think it helps improve their meaning behind it.
I first opened two photos in two different tabs in Photoshop.
I then clicked and dragged my second photo onto my first photo.
I then double clicked on the layer I dragged and deselected R in the channel section of the options menu for the first creation I made and then for my second creation clicked R and B.
I then repositioned my photo to fit to my preference.
I then spent some time ‘experimenting’ with my editing and colours by combining multiple photos in a collage-like formation, I then worked on my layers and added different settings and opacities on each photo to create this final product of a combination of 4 headshots I created. I like this because it combines a mixture of lots of colours like blue, red, purple, green and black and white.
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.
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:
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.
Purpose: Group affiliations often come with shared goals or missions, which can provide direction and purpose to individual members.
Self-worth: Affiliating with a group can boost self-esteem as individuals derive pride from group achievements and a positive group image.
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.
Sequence photography is when you capture the movement of an object or of a sequence of events over time. The photographs are often taken at rapid-fire or they can even be taken separately. This can be displayed as a series of photographs or you could do some editing to make the movement all within one image. This is an example of the subject moving within the same image:
Grid photography can be either a collage of multiple photos together or splitting one photo into a grid known as the rule of thirds. Typologies are also a type of grid photograph and it is when photos are grouped with ones that have similar characteristics and laid out as a grid.
Mood board
Rule of Thirds
What is the rule of thirds?
The rule of thirds is a guideline in photography which places the subject in the left, right or middle third, leaving the other two thirds more open. The image is divided into 9 equal parts by two horizontal and two vertical lines of equal distance. The rule of thirds is generally used to create a well balanced, more visually pleasing photograph and draw the audience’s eyes towards the subject you want them to focus on.
Brian D Smith is an American Wedding and Studio Photographer. He began his career in photography after photographing a wedding and making the decision to pursue his passion and drop his career in engineering. He is passionate about photographing weddings because he believes that committing to one person for life is a beautiful experience to witness. He also enjoys portraits and editorial work because he believes that it provides an opportunity to share a bond with a subject and reflect their beauty.
This is a series of photographs taken by Brian D Smith which have been arranged as a grid. In the top row, you can see that the woman’s eyes are becoming less visible to the camera each time, however, in the middle row she is making direct eye contact with the camera in each photo. On the bottom row, the subject is looking away from the camera in each photo and posing with her hands. In the top row, as her eyes become less visible to the camera, her hands are more visible. For example, in the first photo she is not using her hands, however in the second she is using both but only one palm is visible and in the last one both her palms are visible. Each image that makes up this grid looks like it follows the rule of thirds, apart from the bottom, centre image as the subject’s arm is aligned with the side of the photograph. Finally, this grid does not follow a specific trend as each photograph is different, however, they do all have similar characteristics.
Photoshoot Plan
Photoshoot/Photo Selection
I am going to be using this same set of photos for all Headshots editing.
Edits
Grid 1
I planned my first grid by selecting the photos I will use and positioning them where I want them in Freeform so I can visualise what it will look like.
The photos on the bottom row all appear a bit darker than the others, therefore, I am going to edit them a little bit on Adobe Lightroom Classic.
This is my improved grid after editing the photos:
To make my grid on Adobe Photoshop, I followed the following YouTube Tutorial:
The method I undergone for this was:
1) File > New: 1080 x 1080 pixels | 72 Resolution | Background: White
2) View > New Guide Layout: Columns: 3 | Rows: 3
3) Add a New layer and select Rectangular Marquee Tool then select any colour. Select first box, using Rectangular Marquee Tool, then right click and select Fill… > Foreground Colour.
4) Repeat this process with different colours for each of the boxes.
5) Select a layer and drag and drop a photo to place it on top. Right click the photo layer then select Create Clipping Mask.
6) After this, go to Edit > Free Transform and align the image how you would like it.
7) Repeat this process for the rest of the boxes to get your final result and clear Guides.
Grid 2
I used the same method from my previous edit, just with different photos. I decided that this grid would look better if I made it B&W, so that is what I did.
Grid 3
This will be the photos used in my 3rd grid. I am planning on possibly making the images in the middle row monochrome.
This is what the grid will look like with that row being in B&W. I then decided that I think it would look better with the B&W row being the bottom row so I changed it.
This is the final arrangement of my grid that I will make in Photoshop.
This is my grid that I created using these images in Adobe Photoshop:
Evaluation
Overall, I think my grids are similar to Brian D Smith’s due to the range of hand gestures and poses, although, my grids are different in terms of shape as they are squares whereas his are rectangular.
^ This is my personal favourite grid as I think that it looks quite professional and I like the B&W. I also like how the background of each image appear similar colour, except from the top left being a little darker.
Additionally, the rule of thirds is another form of grid photography and I would say that the majority of the images within my grids follow this rule.
The following photos consist of three different studio lighting techniques, Chiaroscuro, Butterfly and Rembrandt.
Edits
For this rembrandt photo I chose to bring up the exposure and add some warmth to it too. This made the photo look a lot more clearer. I also changed the vibrance and saturation a small bit just to emphasise that warmth and to bring in brighter colours to the photo instead of the dark greys that are present in the original photo.
In this butterfly lighting photo, I chose to make the temperature colder. This changed the background from grey to light blue, which overall changes the atmosphere of the photo and makes it look a lot more interesting by adding slightly more vibrant colours.
For this chiaroscuro photo, I decided to bring up the contrast so that the difference between both sides of the subjects face is more defined. Also, I rose the clarity so that there is more texture in the photo. Overall, this makes the photo a lot deeper and slightly more dark, while the added clarity highlights the subjects face a lot better than before.
Qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of men or boys. Masculinity involves displaying attitudes and behaviours that signify and validate maleness, and involves being recognised in particular ways by other men and women.
Boys/ men are portrayed to act all tough and strong and told to hold and show no emotions, this therefore shows us a clear image of what men are/can be. We all believe that women and the sensitive ones and its ok to cry whereas if a boy shows any tears they are seen as weak and need to man up. This shows a negative image as we aren’t really seeing what boys/ men are but the mask that they put on. I believe that men/ boys should be able to do anything they desire as long as its right and respectful, although they are seen as strong they sometimes use that as their advantage which shouldn’t be seen as a positive aspect of being a man, everyone has an opinion and everyone has feelings that they express otherwise they get bottle up and create more anger inside someone’s minds.
Personally I believe that men/boys act stronger than what they are in all positive ways as they create a shield in front of them to block any negative things from coming their way.
based on the internet I found that a man who is truly masculine embraces responsibility and loves, honours, protects and provides for his family and loved ones.
What is healthy masculinity?
What Is Healthy Masculinity? Healthy or positive masculinity is the idea that men can be emotionally expressive, have female friends or mentors, and express their emotions without feeling emasculated.
What does toxic masculinity mean?
Toxic masculinity refers to the notion that some people’s idea of “manliness” perpetuates domination, homophobia, and aggression. Toxic masculinity involves cultural pressures for men to behave in a certain way. And it’s likely this affects all boys and men in some fashion.
What is gentle masculinity?
Gentle masculinity is supportive, caring, loving, gentle and kind. There is banter, yes, but it’s gentle banter. It’s supportive banter compared to that of “sour masculinity,” which is marked by aggressive behavior, harsh sexualized language, abusive and cold banter about women, and constant put-downs between boys.
FEMININITY:
Qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of women or girls. It is both a means of ‘getting ahead’ as much as it can be a form of distraction. Being in the feminine means taking time as it comes and feeling into situations. It’s about trusting intuition and allowing time and space for life to unfold.
however women/girls are portrayed to be more fragile and weak, we are supposed to stay at home and cook, clean and do all the house work, this gives us an impression that women are seen as helpers, I personally believe that women are a lot more than that and have a lot more potential.
Other forms: feminists. A feminist is someone who supports equal rights for women. If your brother objects strongly to women being paid less than men for doing the same job, he’s probably a feminist. If you believe that women should have the same political, social, and economic rights as men, you are a feminist.
we use a stereotype on women where they belong in a kitchen and being a house wife when women want to have freedom and rights they deserve the same rights as men as we are all equal, it is said that women are more weak and men are stronger which doesn’t define someone and isn’t necessarily true
There are seven feminine archetypes that prevail in contemporary western society—the mother, the maiden, the queen, the huntress, the sage, the mystic, and the lover. The presence of these archetypes in our psyches accounts for the major differences among women.
What is very feminine behavior?
This may include being passive, naive, sexually inexperienced, soft, flirtatious, graceful, nurturing, and accepting.
What are the three types of femininity?
Type 1: Careerist Femininity. Type 2: Individualised Femininity. Type 3: Vocational Femininity.
Binary opposition
Binary opposition originated in Saussurean structuralist theory in Linquistics (scientific study of language) According to Ferdinand de Saussure, binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, 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 – a set of boundaries to work within.
A binary opposition is very easy to identify as its the basics of opposites for example:
The diamond cameo is something Henry Mullins created using 4 photos of the same person but the person is facing different angles in each photo.
our separate portraits of the same subject are printed on a carte-de-visite. These are then printed onto each of the oval shapes of only their headshots and not their body.
Photos I’m using:
The final piece:
How I created it:
I added whatever photo I wanted to start with and then used the elliptical marquee tool to created the oval shape around the individual. I did this 4 times. I then ordered my photos into the front facing at the top, both side facing on the sides and then another random one at the bottom.
I think something I could have improved would be by adding a boarder around the white backgrounded photo.
Double/Multi-Exposure
Double/multi-exposure photos are an illusion created by layering images. This is usually done digitally by taking multiple images and then editing on apps such a photoshop. you can edit the level of opacity of the photos to make it more transparent to see the images that are layered underneath. There is also a way to create this effect without digital editing.
Here’s how your camera captures a double exposure in film cameras:
1. Take your first photo. The camera shutter opens to expose the film to one image, then closes. The first image is generally a subject, often a portrait.
2. Rewind the film and take your second photo. The camera shutter opens again to expose the film to a second image, then closes, shooting over the same frame again. The second image is generally a background, often a landscape or cityscape.
3. Develop both images in one photo. The final image combines the two exposures into a single image where they’re both visible on top of one another.
My own digital attempt:
I copied the same image onto photoshop 4 time and layered the, on top of each other. I then adjusted the positioning of them by using size or just moving them slightly. From here, I edited the opacity and lowered it to create the transparent look. I did this one each photo except the background to keep a solid photo as the base.
JUXTAPOSITION:
Juxtaposition is a photography technique that consists of a contrast of separate photos. This can be created using a contrast of colour, people, places etc. Some juxtaposition techniques have also been used to create stories behind an image but contrasting it with the usual image against teh deeper meaning of the image. Elliott Erwitt is a master when it comes to juxtaposition.
This edit was a fairly easy process. I began by deciding what I was going to juxtapose using the images and found 2 similar takes with different light colours used. I did not use photoshop for this edit, instead I edited them separately on Lightroom and then just transferred them onto a PowerPoint where I was able to align them next to each other for them to be able to go onto my blog as a single photo.
