I’ve got three really effective images in my environmental portraiture, and for the final piece I’m going to have them as a triptych, A5 and all one on top of the other. I think this is the best way to layout these images as they speak for themselves.
Another way of laying them out.
Evaluation:
The photos have a nice vintage effect to them and go together quite nostalgically. They almost have a dulled down saturation which resembles film. They are quite simple images that just capture a random moment of skateboarders just hanging out quite serenely.
My inspiration for this project was how women view beauty even if beauty is relative as soon as I heard the theme I knew I wanted to focus on femininity. I wanted to show how beauty can be viewed in different ways for example when I was photographing the girl playing the drums I used one of my friends for inspiration since she always says that she feels more beautiful when playing the drums. I also know how clothes can take part on how we feel about ourselves so I wanted to show that.
for this image I wanted to kind of do a tittle page that explains the idea behind the rest of the photos
For this image I tried making a contrast between things that are consider feminine ( reading, beauty products) and playing drums that are considered masculine ( playing drums)
This image the idea behind it was that women feel more beautiful when they are wearing clothes and accessories that they like.
During the early 1980s , Hockeny produced “joiner” photographs , a form of photo collage that includes cutting areas of a photo and moving/replacing it around the image.
JOINER PHOTOS
David was increasingly interested in the limitations of photography , he wanted to explore different classical techniques ad discover how they could be broken.
“Although it looks as though there’s a central viewpoint… not one photograph is taken from that central viewpoint.”
DAVID HOCKNEY
The illusion created by the joiner photos manipulates our sight and how we view the image creating a false sense of understanding. This concept i felt related heavily to the idea of identity , people see what they are shown which may not exactly be the truth.
EXAMPLE AND ANALYSIS OF WORK
In some of his later work, Hockney overlaps the images in order to create a cubist effect, Hockney believed these photos were closer to how the eye actually views the world. This sparked an interest in optics and vision , inspiring the collection ‘joiners’
Hockney originally had a slight distaste for photography , he claimed it was
‘All right if you don’t mind looking at the world from the point of view of a paralysed cyclops-for a split second,’
David Hockney
This quickly changed when Hockney started exploring different view points
This is one of Hockney’s most famous photographs , as it inspired a way of printing for Hockney
The miss matched red and black socks contrasts the seriousness and stillness of the garden adding complexity to the image – I later decided to incorporate this in my work.
Relation and insperation to identity
I felt the way Hockney choses to break barriers when it comes to perspective and how we view an image interesting and i wanted to incorporate into my project on identity. i liked his use of contrasting ideas as well but i wanted to achieve this in a more subtle way.
The photos I took at the skatepark are a genre called documentary photography – this is the perfect opportunity to create a magazine so the photos are all linked together and tell even more of a story.
Skateboard photography normally consists of hot summer days, shirtless, sweaty people and sweltering sun. I wanted to convey a time in skating unique to the UK – cold, winter night skating – only for the hardcore. Everyone is wrapped up, gloves, hats, big coats. Skating on winter nights is hard – everything hurts more, your legs don’t work as well, the cold bites your fingertips – and this is conveyed pretty well in the photos through outfits, positions, the way people are huddled up.
I want to convey this through body language, angles, and people emotions.
Evaluation:
I think the zine conveys a sense of cold, shivery happiness like I wanted it to. I had to make some tough creative decisions in order to get some of these spreads the way they are, for example, when an image that I like becomes more of a background it is hard to accept – but it is worth it when I can put framed images over these photos because they end up look much more thought through. Also, when a landscape image has lots of negative space on one side I find it works really well to use the space to put frames or text in it. Throughout making this magazine I realised that text almost always looks more professional when it is much smaller than you would initially think. Most of the text that is in the final edition is over half the size of how I originally thought it looked good. Overall I’m really happy with how the zine came out, the high amount of contrast in the photos, and the grainy look I intentionally shot it with at a high ISO in order to have a more lo-fi effect.
Big Prints
I also want to have 5 of these photos printed in large, matte A3 size – I think this will look brilliant with the heavy grain. I’m going to choose 3 darker portraits, and 2 much more heavily exposed photos of small details like clothing or objects. That way I can have them in such an order that its almost like 1 line of a checkerboard.
Hopefully it will look something like this once printed.
Double exposure is the art created by jointing/ layering images together. This can be achieved in camera settings, or editing platforms. This technique can be made by using different images and layering them or the same image and move it around you created the effect to wanted to.
MAN RAY
Man Ray was born on August 27th, 1890, he was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all, He was best known for his pioneering photography, and was renewed fashion and portrait photography.
MY PICTURES INSPIRED BY HIS WORK
I used photoshop to edit this image Started by picking an image that I liked and then layer the same image on top but removing the background, I then lowered the opacity and positioned it where I though it looked better.
JUXAPOSITION
Juxtaposition is the art of combining two or more elements in the same picture, highlighting the interesting contrast between them, to create an eye- catching and thought-provoking image.
ALICJA BRODODWICZ
Alicja Brodowicz is a photographer born in Poland. She graduated of the institute of creative photography in Opava. And later in her life won 1st place in the portrait category in Black and White Child Photo Competition.
The first photoshoot was taken in the studio in just one day however we had a few ideas so even though it was taken in just a day we made our ideas come to life.
In total we took 139 pictures
I alone took 56 pictures not including the ones tat didn’t work out
I labelled green 37 pictures
I didn’t edit this image much since I liked how it looked without any alterations however I wanted to add more colour and reduce the whiteness in the picture so it added more contrast.
I decided to make this image black and white because I think It fits with the message that I’m trying to show.
With this being my mood board I decided to take inspiration from one image and chose to take a more creative outlook showing the make of the makeup look, to give an almost behind the scenes mood.
Untitled #360 Cindy Sherman 2000
Technical: The lighting looks like it could be natural as the hair is looking more golden than the rest of her meaning the sun could be shining on her. However, studio lighting could be used just to brighten the image up and get clearer features. For the white balance I don’t think theres any setting changed as tungsten wasn’t used because she isn’t blue and daylight wasn’t used because she isn’t yellow or really bright. I think the photographer asked the person to be located against a white wall in a studio or a home to give it a more sophisticated and clean look. The image doesn’t look over exposed although the saturation looks quite high to create an almost doll-like effect. The photographer decided to keep the tonal range warmer showing lots of different shades of orange and yellow contrasting with the whiteness of the t-shirt and the background. For the aperture it looks like a standard lens was used to take an upper body picture, the image isn’t blurry and uses sharp and focused depth of field. The ISO looks like it’s on a medium setting (maybe 800 – 1200) as the image isn’t grainy or coarse. Texture can be seen through the image from the veins on her hand to the way her hair is layed, this shows that she was the main focus.
Visual: Cindy Sherman decided to go with a warmer tone and colour through this image creating a more inviting space instead of using a cool toned palette perhaps to not ‘scare’ the viewer. Sherman layed out the model by making her look away from the camera but still smiling as if she’s looking at something that she’s enjoying. The image looks less formal than normal as the model looks like shes in casual clothes and has an averting gaze – it is almost as if its a non staged, staged photo trying to make her seem ‘casual’ and ‘easy-going’. The image doesn’t have symmetry but has a good focus on face so she isn’t hidden and blurred.
Conceptual: To my knowledge, Cindy Sherman doesn’t see herself as a self portrait artist as everytime she does a photoshoot she’s alway playing a new character(s). With this photo I think she might of wanted to break away from women stereotypes people create and show the real meaning of being a girl. The messy makeup look shows the beginning of something: her trying out a new style or practicing for the first time. Most of her photoshoots have normally been about over exaggerated things like the clowns or the traditional housewife but for this shoot, she kept it more simple and let her face do the work instead of her body.
Contextual: At the time of the 2000s fashion and bright fun makeup was very big. A lot of women decided to come out their shell and experiment with what they could do, this was shocking because before then women were traditionally seen as objects or people that were subordinate to men. The stereotyping to women came heavily when it came to photoshoots as they were meant to be perceived for the male gaze however, after Sherman’s photoshoot from 1977 I think she realised how much the world has changed about their view on women and how they should act, dress and look.
I worked with different heights, lighting and poses to give a variety of images to choose from. This allowed me to make a further selection in which images I want to edit and makes changes to.
Original Images
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I then did the behind-the-scenes esque photoshoot where I pretended the camera was the mirror I was doing my makeup in.
Editing + Experimenting
I chose image 6 to be my final image to compare the original photo as I think I positioned myself best and used the the same facial expressions as Cindy Sherman. I also think the lighting and height were more accurate than the other images I could’ve chosen because I think the photo is angled lower rather than at head height.
Here I took the image I think fits best with Cindy Sherman’s photo and edited it to look similar. I cropped and upped the saturation to give an almost doll-like look to the image. I also used the drawing tool to give myself the same colour nail polish which allowed me to get the same effect that Cindy Sherman used.
For these images I decided to take on my own approach giving an almost behind-the-scenes take on it. I took pictures during me putting on the bright makeup. This to me shows a feminine side as growing up as a girl to me is exploring and finding out how to do makeup. The use of the bright makeup allowed me to be more creative with this shoot and editing because I needed to try and accentuate the brightness and extremeness of the look.
Here I also decided to mesh to photos together to create almost a story of how i’m getting ready. I think it looks good because the haziness of the left photo blended with the right makes it seem as if it were intentional. If I were to do this again I would make sure the camera is more focused which would make the image look clearer yet, it still works with how it’s normally taken.
My Final Images + Gallery
Next time, I’d use a tripod to help me set up and get the images straight which would mean less editing for me. It would also help me by having a place the camera can be set, I’d also try and use natural if possible as you can tell in the images how fluorescent the lighting is.
Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954 is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. She is well known for testing the stereotypes of each gender.
Her breakthrough work is often considered to be the collection untitled film stalls, a series of 70 black-and-white photographs of herself evoking typical female roles in performance media (especially art house films and popular movies.
Cindy Sherman is famous for her use of make-up, costumes, props and prosthetics to create complex and ambiguous photographic images. She invents fictitious characters and photographs herself in imaginary situations. Her work #cindysherman will continue to inspire artists around the world for many years to come.
For four decades, Cindy Sherman has probed the construction of identity, playing with the visual and cultural codes of art, celebrity, gender, and photography. She is among the most significant artists of the Pictures Generation—a group that also includes Richard Prince, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine and Robert Longo who came of age in the 1970s and responded to the mass media landscape surrounding them with both humour and criticism, appropriating images from advertising, film, television, and magazines for their art. She was a key figure of the conceptual art movement.
Cindy Sherman has always been adamant that her photographs are not self-portraits, even though the photos are of her. In a interview when asked about this she replied with this ‘I guess technically they’re pictures of me, but not, because I’m doing all these weird things to my face so it doesn’t look anything like me.’ ‘I always want my photographs to be a little off, whether it’s the background not quite fitting in or, in the old work, you’d see the shutter cord, or be able to tell that I’m using fake tits or a fake nose. Everybody knows it’s not real anyway.’
Image analysis: Cindy Sherman is trying to represent a house wife in the kitchen in this photo and in black and white to show that this could be trying to show how it was in older years. Cindy is not looking into the camera which could mean she is maybe looking around for someone or some thing
We went down to the studio as a group of 5 and we tried different techniques of lighting them being Butterfly lighting and Rembrandt lighting we switched positions through the photoshoot so everyone would have a go at taking the pictures, arranging the light, modelling and managing the reflector.
These were out best images.
This was the first picture I took trying out the Rembrandt lighting technique, I think the upside down triangle is really defined and we did that by using a reflector on the side that we wanted the triangle. The light was far away from the model and a bit higher than her but not too much.
EDITING
I made this image black and white because it makes it look more professional and it also makes the Rembrandt lighting stand out wish was the initial idea.
BUTTERFLY LIGHTING
For the butterfly lighting we positioned the camera quite high and pointing down , then the model used a small reflector to this effect of a butterfly.
EDITING
I decided to keep this one in colour but make the shadows more defined this darker lighting that I’ve created through editing makes the image have more meaning in a way that it looks moody. This way I think the image also looks very professional and the quality is very good.
