Lament – Idea 2
My Intention of Idea 2: For my second idea, I am planning to approach the theme of lament in a slightly different way. I am intending on photographing my model on location this time, in order to create an atmosphere for the image, as well as making it look more appealing. The location that I am planning to take my photographs at is in a graveyard or cemetery. This is because I feel it would clearly enable my viewers to be able to decipher the theme of lament in my photographs. Again, my model will have serious facial expressions, but I would also like her to be wearing clothes that emphasise grief, in order to make my photographs look more aesthetically pleasing.
Written Analysis – George Downing This photograph is taken from the project ‘People/Fashion’ by George Downing. Downing has produced many different photographs in the project but this photo in particular caught my eye. I really like how the model is styled, and the location of the photo shoot. The girl’s facial expression and makeup portray the idea that she is upset and lonely, and this inspires me to take my photographs in a similar way. Firstly, I feel that the location of the photograph is very beneficial because forests are usually associated with darkness, and somewhere people wouldn’t usually want to go on their own. The fact that the branches surrounding the model do not contain any flowers or leaves, suggests the idea that the girl may be grieving, as there isn’t any life on the branches. The composition of the photograph inspires me to take my photos in a similar way because I feel that the subject matter of the girl is very clear, and the background gives the photograph some depth, but at the same time it doesn’t distract away from the model. I would like to achieve a similar composition with my photographs because I feel that after completing my first set of photos without a background, I believe a background of some sort is necessary, to make the photograph more interesting.
Written Analysis – Continued What I find interesting about this photo is the fact that it is very simple, but effective at the same time. The idea that the girl is looking up into the distance suggests that she may be lost, and possibly looking for someone. This could be related to lament as she may be grieving. The fact that the model is styled wearing blue, emphasises this because the colour blue connotes the idea of sadness, and feeling upset. Therefore, this has inspired me to style my model in a similar way to how Downing has styled his model. However, instead of styling her in blue clothes, I will use black clothes because this is the colour that is most related to grief, because most people wear black when they are in mourning. I believe that by doing this, it will make it easier for my viewer to decipher the symbolic meaning of my photographs – the theme of lament. As well as this, I would like my model to be wearing black clothes that are fashionable in order to portray the idea that she may look nice on the outside, but she is broken and very upset in the inside. The focusing in the image enhances the subject matter as Downing has made sure that the background is out of focus and the model and some branches are in focus. I think that this gives the photograph depth, and automatically draws the viewer’s attention to the model, which I think was Downing’s intention. This technique has inspired me to try and do the same focusing techniques when I take my photographs in order to enhance my subject matter, as well as making the photographs a lot more prominent. Downing also uses natural lighting in this image as it is taken outside. I feel this is effective because it means that there isn’t the issue of over exposing an image with artificial lighting. Instead, it gives a natural look to the photo. This is something that I would also like to do when taking my photographs, because I feel that natural lighting would compliment my model’s skin well and give an overall more realistic feel to the photograph.
Initial Photos For Idea 2
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
Image 7
Image 8
Evaluation of Initial Photos For my second set of photos, I wanted to capture the theme of lament in a slightly different way. I still wanted to use a female model as my subject matter, but instead of taking the photographs in a studio, I felt it would be more beneficial to take my photographs on location. This is because I felt like not having a background in my previous set of images was a disadvantage, as the photos were not as prominent as I would have liked them to have been.
I planned to take my photographs in a graveyard/cemetery as I thought that this would be the best way to portray the theme of lament, visually. In addition to this, I wanted the weather to be overcast and gloomy when I was taking my photographs. This is because I wanted to emphasise the dark and dull feelings that people tend to feel when they are grieving the loss of a loved one. In addition to this, I also wanted to vary the camera angles that I used when taking my second set of photographs. For example, I took some long shots of my model, (Images 3 & 8). I chose to do this because I wanted to show the surroundings that my model was in, (a forest) because I feel that it emphasises the fact that she is lonely. This is because many people would be afraid of entering a forest/graveyard on their own, so the fact that the girl is on her own emphasises her loneliness and the fact that she may no longer have anyone, due to the death of someone she loved. This is a technique that I did not use in my first idea, and I feel that my second idea initial photos have greatly benefited from using it, as I believe that my photographs are more prominent and aesthetically pleasing. Another technique that I used when taking this set of photographs was experimenting with aperture and depth of field. For the close up shots (Images 1 & 7), I tried to keep as much of my model’s face in focus as possible. This is because I felt like it was very important to emphasise her facial features because they are essential. Without them, my model would not have been able to clearly express her emotions of sadness and grief, and I feel that this was one of the most important aspects that I had to make sure my photographs had, in order to portray my theme of lament well.
Evaluation of Initial Photos Continued Continually, I kept to the idea of my model have a serious, upset facial expression. For me, this was completely necessary to do, because it makes it a lot easier for my viewers to decipher the true meaning of my photographs. I am happier with my second idea’s initial photos because I feel like I put more effort into making them fit in with the theme of lament. My favourite images would be Images 5 & 8 because I think that they look the most professional and clearly portray the idea that my model is upset and feeling lament. On the other hand, I feel that Images 3 & 4 could have done with some more work put into them in order to make them fit into the brief better. For example, for Image 4 I could have added a texture to the image that would make it look more distraught, as I feel that the photograph on its own does not portray the idea of lament very well, and could instead be mistaken for a simple portrait photograph. Despite this, I am pleased with the outcome of my initial set of photos for my second idea, and I feel that with some developing, they can become a lot more aesthetically pleasing and appropriate to the brief description that I have chosen for this project.
Developmental Photos For Idea 2
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
Image 7
Image 8
Evaluation of Developmental Photographs for Idea 2 When developing my second set of photographs, I tried to think of creative ways that I could portray lament. Firstly, I decided to print off some of my photographs and bury them in dead leaves. I did this to portray the idea that the girl I photographed had experienced the loss of a loved one due to death, and because the leaves were dead, I think this was successful. In addition to this, I burnt some of the photographs before ‘burying’ them in the leaves, which I think made the images very unique and far mare more prominent.
Also, when I re-photographed the images, I took them on angles that made it look like the girl was drowning in the leaves. I felt that this worked well because I believe it symbolically suggests the idea that the girl cannot escape from grief, and that it is preventing her from thinking about anything else. Conclusively, I think that this relates well to lament, because an expression of grief is something that no human being (with a soul) can escape. The images that I developed in this way were images; 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8. My favourite one out of them would have to be image 5 because I liked how the flame burnt into my model’s face, making the image more prominent and unique. Secondly, I decided to re-photograph Image 1 by placing twigs onto the original photograph. I tried to line them up with the branches that were originally visible in the photograph, however I don’t think that this worked incredibly well. Despite this, I used the twigs for a symbolic meaning. This was that they had either been broken off a branch on purpose, or by just dropping off. This can be related to death because some people die due to natural causes (e.g. the twig falling off of a branch) or through murders etc (e.g. a twig physically being pulled away from it’s branch). I believe that by placing the twigs over the photograph, it reinforces the idea that the person the girl is mourning could have died in many different ways, but the harsh reality is that the person is not going to come back. I like to think I have also symbolically shown this in this image because the girl in the photograph is unable to move the twigs – they are acting like a burden preventing her from doing what she would like (e.g grief).
Evaluation of Developmental Photographs for Idea 2 - Continued The final technique that I used when developing my photographs was physically tearing two of the photographs (Images 3 & 6) in to small pieces. I thought of this idea because I wanted to portray the idea that the girl is trying to move on with her life after mourning a loved one, but it isn’t working. I wanted to show that she is trying to piece herself back together after the death had broken her, but the fact that the pieces of paper don’t completely match up, illustrates the idea that my model can never be how she used to be again, now that her loved one/s is gone. I really liked how these developments turned out, and I feel that it would be relatively easy for my viewers to decipher the idea that the girl feels broken inside as a result of lament, because of the way I have developed the images. On the whole, I am very happy with the way my developmental photographs have turned out, and prefer this set of photographs to my first set. Therefore, it is very likely that I will be using photographs from these initial set of photos in my final outcomes, and may try to experiment with laying the images on top of one another to emphasise the chaos that the model may be feeling if she is in mourning.