Coursework 2 – Idea 1 To what extent can I capture a models insecurities/emotions and feelings creatively through photography?
Artist Research
Jane Burton
Velvet Portrait Suite collection
Brooks Reynolds
‘We are sleeping giants’
Photographer Brooks Reynolds, from Canada, perhaps most famous for his series ‘We are sleeping giants’. This was a project ‘highlighting the emotional and visual elements of youth and summer nights’. Reynolds uses a variety of different lightings from ‘strobes to old school bare bulb flashes’ as he says to blogger,
Christoph Boecken, to create melancholic or dream like photographs. The lighting helps to create a mood and tell the story of the image or series. By highlighting only the model’s hair it produces a ghost-like feel, hiding her identity and emotions. The sharp contrast of the black and white draws the viewer into the image, with the central focus being on the model’s hair. It creates a sense of isolation and loneliness, making the viewer empathise with the model.
I wanted the work produced in this coursework to have a true meaning behind it. I wanted to use my model’s actual insecurities and try portraying them through my images. I feel like I did portray this through my work but I also think I could have emphasised it a lot more given more time.
I feel my initial images were quite visually pleasing. I think I placed a lot of emphasis on the lighting and composition of the images and that is why they worked well. To create my initial images, I used a dark room and a high f stop number and slow shutter speed to get the whole body in focus. I wanted the images to be clear and crisp, getting her hands into the frame, getting all lines and marks on her body into the image. The first set of developments I did were using Niks software, and using a pinhole filter to get the viewers attention on one point and not the whole of her body. I was quite pleased with how this set of developments came out because it emphasised her body and how she feels about it. The overexposure works well in obscuring her body slightly more to further emphasise her lack of self-confidence. To further develop these images I wanted to only show part of the image, so I used this technique to show the parts of her body she was most insecure about, showing her hands in the tears to portray her insecurities of her body; the tears representing the breakdown of her mental state. Overall I was very pleased with this first idea and felt my images were strong and portrayed my idea well. However, I would have liked to do another further development of this set of images as I felt there was potential to work with it more.
Coursework 2 – Idea 2 To what extent can I capture a models insecurities/emotions and feelings creatively through photography?
Claude Andreini Italian photographer, Andreini, first started making clay sculptures but was soon interested with the human body and their actions in the city. According to the Saatchiart website, Andreini uses the body as an ‘expressive material’ as a way of understanding. The monochrome palette used helps to emphasise the body part in the frame. The legs and hands are parts of the body that create physical action and movement. The technique used by Andreini is similar to a pinhole filter on the Niks software, this forms an image which is slightly overexposed and one which only highlights the focal point of the image into the frame, leaving the rest in darkness. It could be interpreted as insecurity of the model or emphasis on the model’s best features. Giulia/ Legs
Ester Vonplom Visual link for copydex work. I felt this image worked well in obscuring the image slightly and thought I could do something similar with copydex.
Ruinaulta
With this idea I wanted to create another set of images which showed the model’s insecurities in another artistic way. However, I struggled with the initial images because I couldn’t focus the image properly on the model in the dark using a lamp to light up part of her body and leave the rest in darkness. I struggled to focus the image because the lighting kept changing, given more time I would have reshot these images to make them stronger and clearer. However, I felt that the grainy effect helped in obscuring the model slightly. The first developmental images were inspired by Vonplom, I wanted to create an image which looked destroyed and tattered and I created this using copydex. Instead of using a light hand to remove the paper, I used a heavy handed so parts of the image were also removed. I think this worked well as the images looked worn and tattered, which was the effect I was going for. This was because I wanted to present my models mind as the development. Her mind is worn out and fried from the constant self-hate and self-loathing. I developed my images further by printing the initial images onto acetate and then placing a vintage cup and saucer onto the image to represent the model and her diet. The small cup was to represent the minute amount of food she eats to make her seem ‘beautiful’ to herself. I'm very pleased with this final development as the shadows in the image also represent the dark side to her which makes her feel the way she does. The slight colour added to the images helps bring in a sort of good and evil together. The contrast of the tones helps draw the viewer in and take in every detail of the image. Overall I was pleased with this idea as I felt I conveyed my story well and it would get the viewer to think about the deeper meaning within the images produced.