Lost Girl –Photography AS Leanne Warren
Idea 1 –Ar9st analysis –Phil Toledano
Phil Toledano •
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What I found rather intriguing by this photograph is just the all around general idea of taking an old photograph of a model and then puAng her in a completely different context to make the en9re picture change completely. The idea behind this photo is to use the image of someone and put her into a situa9on that would seem small and harmless to us, but have a major impact on the person if they were smaller. This image is successful in not only using something quirky to catch someone’s eye, but also keeps the aKen9on on the sparse few objects in the room, making sure not to distract someone and take the aKen9on off of the main items. The photograph is actually taken very simply. I imagine it was taken in a dimly lit room and then had strong ligh9ng shining upon the shredder and the girl. There isn’t really that much of a background to distract the viewer and it really brings the front image to light and bring more of an impact of the actual subject. The one thing that really catches my aKen9on in this photograph is the slightly comical personality captured in this photograph. It’s almost a kind of dark humor that Toledano has used to make this photograph have it’s full poten9al used. The angling of the shredder makes it seem like that should be the main item in the photograph, and yet our aKen9on is drawn to the girl.
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I also like how the ligh9ng has made an outline of the situa9on with a shadow. The strong ligh9ng and posi9oning of the girl almost makes it feel like this should be a crime scene wai9ng to happen, and it helps to add to the humorous effect of the image. The dark colour scheme and overall lack of colours should make the image dull and slightly uninteres9ng. However, it s9ll manages to hold onto an interes9ng subject. I think this lack of colour also seems to help add to the ‘dark humor’ effect. It brings about a more sinister look, and yet when people look at the photograph, they’re more likely to laugh than to get frightened by it. What I’m trying to aim for with my set of photographs is to make a selec9on of this idea of girls being small and around everyday appliances. However, instead of using office items, I will be using places around the everyday home. I’m intending on purchasing a fashion magazine and then cuAng out the models within them to place in various situa9ons around my house. This will include walking out of a microwave, geAng sucked up within a vacuum cleaner and siAng in a teacup. I feel that I will not only get the dark humor effect that Toledano has captured, but I’ll also make something just as quirky What I’m trying to achieve is the same sort of element that Toledano has captured with his photographs. I wish to be able to make someone smile when they see the photographs so that it really brings a reac9on out of someone. I feel that this would really prove to me that it managed to capture some sort of emo9on in the picture and really bring interest to it. What I plan to do with my photographs is to take someone elses images (Models from a fashion magazine) And put them into different situa9ons around the house. I do believe that this will help to make an idea of a girl that’s lost in an alternate universe in which everything is much bigger than herself.
Ini9al Photographs
Evalua9on of ini9al photographs • The aim of these photographs was to get a beKer idea of the different angles I could capture each model, taking in the liKle details that I may not be able to capture whilst cuAng out the images and turning them into something new. I feel like I’ve definitely managed to find out for myself the different kinds of perspec9ves shown in these images, simply by photographing images out of a magazine. Although these ini9al photographs may not be what will end up within the final images, I do feel it’s helped me personally to see what angles I should photograph the developed photographs at. • I think that using a low aperture to photograph the longer shots of the photographs is a really effec9ve way taking photographs from magazines and making them look really different to the naked eye.
Developed Photo’s
Ar9st inspira9on -‐Hannah Hoch
This kind of development is what I will be aiming for with my final photographs. I feel that I may not use such a surreal theme when making them, but perhaps I might put items alongside the original photographs to make them look as if they are even smaller than what I have made them out to be. Hopefully, through doing this, I will manage to successfully show a collec9on of lost girls put in a surreal situa9on of all being shrunken down in size.
Evalua9on of Idea 1 •
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My original inten9on with these photographs is to put the girls in new surroundings which would make them look smaller and smaller and smaller. I felt that in this sense, the idea of the models being lost in a new larger world would be captured within the photographs. I think from start, in which I was photographing different angles of each individual photo, to finish, In which I photographed the developed photo’s, I managed to keep on making the models look smaller and smaller un9l they just look completely different to their original photograph. I think there’s some technical problems with my photographs. It might be the the slight fuzziness of my final pictures for this idea, or it might be the ligh9ng of them that I didn’t par9cularly like. But I do feel that my furthest development may not have been as well done as my first development idea. However, overall, I feel as if the photographs have got something effec9ve about them, making it perhaps look as if it’s evidence of a previous adventure of a ‘lost girl’. I do like the shine of the second photograph that makes it really define that it’s a photograph. I feel as if the composi9on of the photographs were more planned out in my first development, as apposed to my final development. I do like the effect that I’ve brought to the image, and the dimmer contrast in comparison to the pictures before it. However, there are some points of the composi9on in the final photo’s that doesn’t look very planned out and organized and more random. This might be due to the lack of 9me leX to be more organized with it and maybe feeling like I needed to rush these final photographs.
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I think that with these photographs, the emo9onal impact is more likely to be humorous than anything. I didn’t really try to get across any real expressionis9c message through this set of photographs. I’m hoping that the viewer will want to look more into these photographs and hopefully find them quite quirky and amusing, like I found Toledano’s photographs. However, I feel that a viewer would possibly want to look at the progression of how the photographs were done, and not just the final outcome. I’m hoping that through these photographs, the viewer will be able to see the symbolism of a ‘lost girl’ within it. I really thought hat by puAng models in strange and extraordinary places, they would be seen as being ‘lost’ from their usual surroundings and more or less forced into being in somewhere new and bizarre. I feel that if I’m trying to achieve the overall ‘lost girl’ symbolism, I’ve definitely achieved it through the idea of each individual girl being lost in a surrounding that they’re really not used to.
Idea 2 –Technically connected Ar9st Analysis – Melvin Sokolsky
Melvin Sokolsky • I’m really intrigued by this technique that Sokolsky has used, to get his sort of surrealism of two expressions within one photograph. I especially like the posi9oning of each individual image, being able to have one looking up, and one looking straight ahead, brings out an element of mul9ple eyes looking in different direc9ons. It’s almost as if it’s one person trying to look everywhere. There’s a part of this that I wish to capture in my images. An idea of having two expressions and emo9ons within one image. • I think that this technique will inspire me to project one face onto another, but aside from this, I feel like I wish to project my model onto different parts of her body too, not just the face. I also think it might be a clever idea if I were to make my model get involved with the image too. Perhaps make her look like she’s reac9ng to an image of herself. I feel that I’ll be geAng a different kind of a symbolism within my image. Whereas I think Sokolsky is trying to get show looking in mul9ple expressions, I’m going to try and get across more of a symbolic idea of reminiscing yourself, how you’ve changed by looking at your old self.
Ini9al Photographs
Evalua9on of ini9als •
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original inten9on of these photo’s was to get a various selec9on of images in which someone is seemingly looking off into the distance and being thoughZul. It was to get an idealism of being lost in thought, though this wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to overall get across in the final photographs in Idea 2. For the ini9als, I wanted the model to look rather innocent, so that it could perhaps be transformed into something darker when developing the photographs further. I think that overall, my ini9al photographs ended up looking technically rather well. There are quite a few photographs where the face of the model has come out slightly blurry, due to the fact that I had set my aperture too low. However, I do feel that in some of the photographs, such as the last one, it has made it look quite effec9ve. I think doing slight edi9ng has helped in many features of these photographs. In many of them, I managed to make the sky or the background look clearer due to using mul9ple layers and layer masks. I think the visual impact these photo’s bring are rather effec9ve. It may have something to do with the satura9on of the images that bring a dimmer and fros9er feeling to the images. However, I do feel like overall, I’ve managed to bring out a thoughZul, ‘lost’ visualiza9on of the pictures. Overall, these ini9al’s have come out very well, but I do think the developed photographs are where the real visual impact will come in.
Developed photographs • I firstly developed these photographs by projec9ng them back upon the model I used in my ini9al photographs
• And then I developed them further by adding text over the top of them
Evalua9on of Idea 2 •
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The real aim for me behind this set of photographs was to get across an overall feeling of reminiscence. The idea of looking back over your old self and being slightly envious of it. It really contrasts with the impact of my ini9al photographs as it’s almost got a sense of remorse and sorrow within it. It brings out a darker element in the theme of ‘lost girl’. I really feel like I achieved this through my photographs. Though, I think when experimen9ng with using the text I may have used it a liKle too much, but the last two photographs came out exceedingly well. I think that all of my photo’s were very much in focus and looked really effec9ve when overlaying the ini9al photographs over the projec9ons and with liKle sec9ons of wri9ng appearing too. I do feel that in one of the photographs I may have stretched the overlapping face slightly, but I had only just no9ced this aXer expor9ng the photograph. However, I felt that the image s9ll looked very effec9ve for what I was aiming for aXerwards. I think that the lack of bright colour’s is really effec9ve in the kind of emo9on I’m aiming for. That, and having the main segment of wri9ng I want to stand out in a bold red really helps to make it stand out in comparison to the other liKle quotes I have around the page. Overall, I feel like the colour theme’s and such I have on these pictures have really helped to make an emo9onal selec9on of photographs that really
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The visual impact I want these photographs to have on the viewer (I can imagine) will be quite dark and mysterious. That’s the kind of opinions I received from others when they viewed this set of photographs. I do feel that the impact of these developed photographs really do help to give across a remorseful feeling. I’m hoping the viewer will really picture this being a dark and thoughZul style, giving an impact of mystery. I’m hoping that the idea of having a past personality or aAtude being ‘lost’ comes across through this as well. I do feel as if the symbolic message does come across through this message. I’m hoping that when someone looks at these pictures they don’t just think that it looks dark and evil. I’m hoping that both the expressions and the wri9ng wriKen upon them would help to imply there being a deeper message within the photograph.
Final three Photographs
End of Project Evalua9on •
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I feel that my ini9al photographs turned out to be rather effec9ve. I feel that they effec9vely helped with developments later within the project and really set a good star9ng point within each set of photographs. AXer taking the ini9al sets, it really helped to get me thinking more about how I could develop them more and make them that much beKer. I feel as if in the first set of photographs however, since the photographs weren’t really used for the developed photographs, it may not have been as useful as the second set of ini9al photographs. I also feel as though in the first set of ini9al photographs, it was more like I was experimen9ng instead of actually taking photographs to use later on within the set. I also no9ced that when I was taking my ini9al set of photographs for the second set, a lot of them would either come out too bright, or too dark, and there were some of them where they came out a liKle blurry. However, by bringing out some of the colour’s on Photoshop, and also using layer masks, I managed to bring back a lot of the image that may have been lost before. I feel that I really pushed myself when experimen9ng with the photographs. I really enjoyed trying out different techniques that I had never used at some points. For example, I had never tried using projec9ons before and experimen9ng with this was a real experience and heightened my skills quite a lot. However, there were some techniques that I didn’t get round to experimen9ng with, due to lack of 9me. Examples of techniques that may have not been used would be using copy-‐dex to copy the image into fabric and give it an old-‐fashioned distorted look, which could’ve been effec9ve for the second set of photographs. Also, looking back on it, I do think that perhaps if I had posi9oned my model beKer, or brought the projector back further; perhaps I would’ve been able to cap9vate a more eerie atmosphere which would help to make the final outcome look more effec9ve. However, I s9ll think that even without this, I’ve managed to capture a great sense of emo9on.
• I think that my choice of photographers really did help out in inspira9on and technical features. When analysing each photograph individually, I felt as if I was really looking deeper into the photograph and trying to see what they were trying to get across with each individual photograph. I found that Melvin Sokolsky was par9cularly interes9ng, especially when it came to trying to figure out what he was trying to achieve and symbolise through taking these kinds of photographs, since I thought it was more in depth in comparison to Phil Toledo’s photographs. Although I thought his style was quirky, unique and quite fun, it had less of an emo9onal impact. I really think that Melvin Sokolsky’s has really helped me to look into more depth when looking at photographs and to think about what the ar9st is trying to achieve. • I am really happy with my final outcomes. I feel that perhaps my idea 2 had a more effec9ve outcome than my Idea 1, but I feel that that might be due to having a longer amount of 9me to think about my idea 2. I also think that my idea 2 photographs have more expression and emo9on put into them. However, overall, I do really think that the outcomes do reflect the Brief very well and could really project a plot line behind them. However, there are a few things that may have gone wrong within the photographs. For example, I think that I may have been able to develop the photographs for idea 2 even more than what they already are. If I were to copy the pictures onto copy-‐dex, I may have been able to make the image look distorted and even more effec9ve than it already is. I do believe however that overall they did finish up very well.
• When I was doing this par9cular project, I had indefinite trouble trying to get a model to photograph. It took several weeks and eventually I just needed to find a separate model in order to just take the photographs. For that reason I lost a lot of 9me that I could have used developing my photographs and making them even beKer than they are now. If I was to do this project again, I’d definitely try and find a model straight away that I knew would be trustworthy and reliable. However, although this is a main note, it’s not the only thing that I would change if I was to redo this project. I would also try and develop my ideas more and look more into ar9sts in which I could be inspired to. The reasoning behind this is so that I may be able to analyse a more symbolic reasoning behind each of the photographs and then put that into my own work. I feel as if I would enjoy doing this as it would help for me to expand my horizons and really use my imagina9on a lot more. • Another thing I would do again would probably be to try and think more into what I’m aiming for within my photographs before taking them. I feel that when I first take my ini9al photographs, I was taking them and then leAng myself think of ideas on how to develop them further, when in fact I should have focussed on what I was aiming for beforehand. Perhaps in the future, I will mind-‐map my ideas out before I do them.