ARD 608 Negotiated Studies 2

ARD 608 Negotiated Studies 2.

Simon Gould S19000804 Photography and Film B.A. (hons) Wrexham Glyndwr University May 2022 A Study of Ego and Alter Ego through Self-Portraiture

Negotiated studies 2.

Laid bare.

Introduction The concept of the self-portrait is a phase that a lot of artists go through, for some like Rembrandt they paint themselves at various periods of their life as a form of recording different stages and ages.

Photographers like Cindy Sherman are seen as a self-portrait artist almost completely. She uses herself as a model to explore and highlight stereo types.

The idea of this project is to explore the inner self and find an ego and an alter ego. This is based on an earlier project that I wanted to expand further. The first step is to write a list of my main characteristics, drawing up a simple mind map. I can then look to the extreme opposite. I am wanting to produce paired images that are not just for the project but can also be used on my web page and in my portfolio later.

This will bring me out of my comfort zone, as I do not like having my photograph taken or seeing myself in pictures. I don’t even take selfies. I stay firmly behind the camera as a rule.

I plan to create fantasy images for both and will use some post-production. These will combine selfportraiture, photography, and surrealism. The mixing of all three elements is unusual but not unique.

Through my research for this project, I have found photographers who either dabble in this amongst their other projects or specialize in it completely.

The main research has been an influence, but it is not my choice to copy any artist. Surrealism is a very personal thought process; it is how you the viewer sees it. If someone else is on the same wavelength then it is a bonus, but surrealism is you. That is why I thought it would go well with the idea of ego and alter ego.

Original learning agreement.

Presentation made in Powerpoint.

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Link to issuu book https://issuu.com/simongood/docs/laid_bare_good_photography

Definition. ego

noun

alter ego

\ ˈē-(ˌ)gō also ˈe- \ plural egos

al·ter ego | \ ˌȯl-tər-ˈē-(ˌ)gō also -ˈe-(ˌ)gō \ plural alter egos

Definition of ego

Definition of alter ego

1: the self especially as contrasted with another self or the world

1: a second self or different version of oneself: such as a: a trusted friend b: the opposite side of a personality Clark Kent and his alter ego Superman c: COUNTERPART SENSE 3a fictional character that is the author's alter ego

2a: EGOTISM SENSE 2 b: SELF-ESTEEM SENSE 1 3: the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that serves as the organized conscious mediator between the person and reality especially by functioning both in the perception of and adaptation to reality— compare ID, SUPEREGO

noun

2: law: a person or entity vicariously liable for another (such as an agent) … because the Cuban bank had not physically participated in the expropriation, it could not be considered an alter ego of the Government in the context of the Citibank case. — The New York Times.

What is Self-Portrait Photography?

Self-portrait photography is a form of portrait photography where the photographer is the artist and the subject. The photographer is taking a picture of themselves. Today most people are familiar with the selfie. They are all-over social media. You take your smart phone and snap a picture of yourself.

However, is a selfie a self-portrait? Not really. You are the photographer and the subject, but the selfportrait is more than a quick snap of your face. It’s not just about getting the most flattering angle.

They are often telling a story or being experimental. They can develop alter egos, pretending to be someone they are not, or an exaggeration of one’s own personality. Clark Kent was a mild mannered, quiet person but his alter ego was Superman. Superman was still Clark Kent only a more powerful and hyped-up version of him.

The triangle of self-portrait, photography and surrealism is quite a rare combination. Most artists, both photography and graphic go through at least a brief period of self-analysis. In the case of many artists, it would also be a financial decision. They could not afford to pay for a model. There is surreal photography, looking at the world from a different perspective. And of course, the surreal artists. The Spanish artist Salvador Dali being one of the most obvious and well known. His work The Persistence of Memory being instantly recognizable.

The reason for being your own model has two elements. For one who knows you better than you?

The photographer doesn’t have to spend time building up a relationship with a model because they are working alone. The second is a deeper exploration of oneself. By documenting ourselves over a passage of time we see things that we miss when glancing in the mirror. It gives something solid to study and scrutinize. It is also a way of experimenting with new looks or having a way to express feelings or passions.

Planning the project.

This project is tied in with the end of year degree show. Ultimately, I need to produce five prints that illustrate the subject as well as I can. The project is one of exploring ego and alter-ego. It is my intention to produce five paired images to show an aspect of my lifestyle or personality and the opposite of it. I am already bending the rules of the module by producing ten images. This will be justified by having them as two halves of the same image. The taking of the photographs will only be part of the work because I want to use photo-manipulation to add elements to the final pieces. I would also like to add in references to the separate projects I have done whilst at Glyndwr. Some of these will be more subtle that others.

The first idea is to sit down with a blank piece of paper and write down what I see as an important side to me. What comes to my mind instantly is my passionate hatred of cruelty to animals and my loathing of hunting. The image that comes to my mind is the stags head mounted on a wall. I did toy with the idea of being dressed as a hunter, but I couldn’t do it even if it was for a campaign or joke.

Having come up with the thought of me as a hunted stag I wanted the opposite to be a less complex image. I also wanted half the images to be black and white, or monochrome/ minimal colour. The best way to do it and keep a level of uniformity was to have what I am black and white and the alter ego to be coloured.

Once the shots had been worked out it was a decision on location or studio. I immediately chose this to be a 100% studio-based project. I wanted the lighting to be simple except for the detective shot. To get the authentic look I would also need props. The most complex was the detective, who would need clothing, a hat, a blind and a gun. The gun was the key and after purchasing a toy version on eBay,

which looked terrible, I was lucky enough to borrow a replica from a fellow student. This afforded me two lessons, one be as realistic as possible, and on a low budget ask for help and borrow. When finances are low there is nothing wrong in borrowing or hiring props to add to a shot.

I took a series of basic head shots in the studio. I used a lighting ratio of both 1:1 and 1:2. I set the lights up, fixed the focus on a mannequin, which I used as a stand in. Then I switched the lens to manual focus so it would not reset. I put the camera on a 2 second delay and shot as many images as I could using a remote trigger. One problem I had was that a lot more than I wanted were out of focus.

I was not standing where the mannequin had been so the focus point was wrong. Moving back and to the camera to check what had been taken became an issue. I later learned that I could eliminate this by having linked my smart phone to an app and checked the camera without moving from my position.

I could not have the auto focus on, partly because I didn’t want to, but also because the studio was dark as I was getting all the light from the flashes. I did a lot of different poses, some serious, some joking and others dramatic. This gave me a lot of images to work with for various ideas.

The stag image was quite a bold complex image, using a lot of layers in photoshop. It was an image that I hoped would, if not shock, at least make someone look at it for more than a passing glance. To balance against it the image of the animal lover needed to be much more subtle. I chose to use a photograph that was quite simple with a slight moody lighting. The image was changed by adding coloured cat’s eyes, taken from another shot. I also elongated the fingernails with a liquify mask to make them appear more like claws. Originally the claws were coloured with a slight tint. This kept the overall result as black and white with just a bit of colour. Keeping to the original brief, mainly.

However, upon review of the image in context the eyes were desaturated to black and white, and the claws were shortened. The piece worked as a stand-alone but when put with the series it needed to be toned down. The other change I made was after looking at the two together I called the first one the animal protector, due to the slightly menacing look the addition of the eyes and claws gave it.

On reflection, the addition of colour over worked the idea and this was later changed to all black and white.

I wanted to do a shot of a 1950’s detective looking out of a window. I had the final image in my mind, and it would have to be colour as it is in the alter ego section. This image, due to the period is usually black and white. By dressing in black and white clothing and keeping the lighting stark it would give the look I wanted. I also added a blue cast to it in photoshop. Due to health and safety, I used a replica gun and added the smoke and hole in the window in postproduction. I had a run in with the university for wanting to burn some tealights, I think they would have a problem with me firing a gun. The addition of the hole in the window also helped make the black backdrop through the blind look slightly less like a studio set.

This image was one that I costed as I thought it would make a print that could be offered for sale. The breakdown of costs is in the ARD604 project, but it would cost £315.15 to create 20 A4 prints, and they could be sold for £399.80. This would be 2 hours paid work and overheads plus a 20% profit to go back into the business.

When I have produced all the images, I will produce an e-book through issuu.com to add to my C.V. my webpage and in this blog.

When I came to review the first full set of images, I realized that simply taking shots and manipulating them in photoshop did not give the best image. Also, some of the elements used in photoshop were

originally downloaded. I don’t know if this was laziness or a panic on a lack of time. However, anything that I could and should photograph has been retaken. I did want to include one image that had a ‘borrowed’ photograph in it as that was a reference to a previous project.

Original Mind Map of ideas.

The Studio

The studio set up for the portraits

The lights and their settings

8 Self-Portrait Photographers.

Rachel Baran’s photographs have the composition of classic studio self-portraiture. But she adds elements of surrealism to make them unique. The elements are often shapes and artifacts from the natural world.

Ben Robins is one of the UK’s most influential self-portrait photographers at the moment. He uses photo-manipulation techniques to create self-portraits that are compelling and funny. He uses photo manipulation and self-portraits with a thick slice of surrealism. His work makes comments about modern life and the human condition. They’re not only technically very clever, but the photographs are also humorous and witty. His technical editing is excellent. But he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

Juliette Jourdain has a classic style of portrait and self-portrait photography. The composition framed closely around her face. And the location is the photography studio. But there’s nothing outdated about her imagery. Every self-portrait is bold. Jourdain grabs your attention and holds it. She works in both colour and black and white and creates a wide variety of concepts that bring her self-portrait

photography to life. Each set is unique. And she often introduces elements of fantasy. Or she can create images that look like old paintings.

Juliette Jourdain is a French photographer just 26 years old. As her fellow citizen Corneille used to say, “in souls nobly born valour does not depend upon age.” Her pictures are ones of an experienced photographer, who has already found the guiding principle of her art and follows it with passion, pugnacity, and unbridled imagination.

Her favourite genre is the portrait, and most notably the self-portrait, a very demanding category of composition that she explores with mastery. Using a wide variety of techniques, from scenic arts to costumery and to makeup, she achieves the great performance of completely transforming herself in every shot, becoming the raw material of her fantasies. Each picture is a world of its own, mixing eclectically all kinds of cultural signals, be it Lady Gaga or Tim Burton, the catwalks of the fashion industry or the circus tents.

Interview with Margot Pierce- who is the real Juliette Jourdain?

Self-portraits Hello Juliette. Really nice to meet you!

Hi guys, nice to meet you too and thanks for your interest!

After seeing so many self-portraits of you, our first question: who is the real Juliette Jourdain?

I’m a young photographer living in Paris, France. As my photos don’t necessarily show, I’m a pretty simple, discrete, and “classic” person. Well… if you remove all my tattoos, I am classic. It always makes me laugh when I meet people for the first time and their reaction is: “Oh, you’re not the person I imagined!” Indeed, I don’t walk around in the street with my wigs and glitter [laugh].

How did the idea of this amazing series of self-portraits come about?

I don’t really know. Probably it comes from the fact that I simply like to work alone. I have the feeling that I can experiment more, fail, try again, fiddle without pressure. Plus, I love to transform, dress up and become another character. By the way, I do the makeup myself, and sometimes even the costumes. It can take hours, even weeks if I have to design a specific dress. My goal: to be so transformed that I am unrecognizable.

The sad clown often repeats in your creations. Can you tell us more about this character?

I’m fond of the circus universe. Not the spirit, but the aesthetics. By the way, I would love to shoot on a circus ring, under a tent, with a whimsical set and costumes. The sad clown, or mime, I like him because he’s melancholic, and I find it beautiful, the various expressions and the power carried by this sentiment.

Andy Warhol has an extensive collection of self-portraits shot with Polaroid. He exposed his concerns about aging, and often posed in drag, developing a female alter ego. There has been a lot written about Warhol as he was one of the first personalities who was born of being surrounded by celebrities.

He created the idea of being famous for being famous. In some ways this diminishes the actual talent he has for both his draughtsmanship and his ideas of reinterpreting original work into something new.

Robert Mapplethorpe was another self-portrait photographer that liked to play with identity. He would create new identities for himself. A controversial photographer, he was best known for his black and white photographs. His work featured many subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, and still-life images. The work he did documenting the gay BDSM scene of New York City in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s was revolutionary. A 1989 exhibition of his work titled Robert

Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, in the U.S. sparked a debate concerning both use of public funds for “obscene” artwork and the Constitutional limits of free speech.

Cindy Sherman is a self-portrait photographer following the tradition of Warhol and Mapplethorpe.

She uses the form to experiment with alter egos. She creates characters and photographs them in the style of traditional portraiture. Her photography has a sharp sense of satire and the characters although exaggerated are recognisable. They’re over the top. But they’re the people from our society.

Some of her shots take a traditional style and construction. But she also uses smartphone filters and editing apps to add effects.

Her breakthrough work is often considered to be the collected “Untitled Film Stills,” a series of 70 black and white photographs of herself evoking typical women’s’ roles in performance media, mainly the arthouse and B-movies. By the 1980’s she had moved to colour and larger prints, concentrating more on the costume, lighting, and facial expression.

Henriette Theodora Markovitch aka Dora Maar was a French photographer, painter, poet, and lover of Pablo Picasso. She was depicted in several of Picasso’s paintings, including his Portrait of Dora Maar and Dora Maar au Chat. Together they made a series of portraits combining both experimental photography and print making techniques.

During the 1930’s Dora Maar’s controversial photomontages became famous icons of surrealism. Her eye for the obscure also crossed to her commercial work, including fashion and advertising, as well as her social documentary projects. With the heighten political climate she was linked to many left-wing manifestos which was a radical gesture for a woman at that time.

Her relationship with Picasso greatly influenced both their careers. She documented the creation of his most political work, Guernica 1937. In later life Maar withdrew from photography and concentrated on painting. She found her inspiration from poetry, religion and philosophy and returned to the darkroom only in her seventies.

Flora Borsi is an artist from Hungary. At only twenty-nine she has become one of the leading selfportrait photographers in the world with a dominant fine art style. Her shots are stylised and deliberate. The elements she uses include surrealism. The work leans more towards science-fiction rather than fantasy. She often has an androgynous look as a model, which has the appearance of scifi utopias from old films.

Borsi taught herself photo-editing at 11 and uses strong manipulation to create surreal images that are based on identity, relationships, dreams, and emotions. She captures both the strength and fragility of the human psyche. Expertly visualising dark fantasies and atmospheric dreams. She often features the female body and plays with hiding and revealing the eyes or face to leave only the female form. Thus, exploring the questions of the relationship between the body and the self.

A quote about her work.

“Phocus. While seated centre stage in front of the camera, unbeknown to the viewer, Flora was holding her smartphone by her side, using the Hasselblad Phocus Mobile App. Seated in a delicate setup, the use of the app was crucial when it came to her having the flexibility to take images from her seat with the touch of a button, preview the image instantly, and change various settings as necessary to reshoot the photo – all without leaving her seat and keeping her fragile composition intact.”

This would have been particularly useful to have included whilst doing the photographs for this project.

Each of the photographers are creating a mask, not to hide behind, but to show an aspect of their being that they feel cannot be seen. Warhol, Mapplethorpe, and Sherman have all experimented with gender reversal. Sherman again, like Jourdain and Borsi have used detailed make-up to transform themselves. Baran and Robins have reinterpreted themselves with photomanipulation. Dora Maar almost a century ago was using the techniques available at the time and inventing new ones to try and understand her being.

The question the viewer is left with is which represents the real person? Is it the photographer behind or in front of the camera?

Rachel Baran

Ben Robins

Andy Warhol

Cindy Sherman

Juliette Jourdain

Robert Mapplethorpe

Dora Maar

Flora Borsi

Laid Bare.

The five paired images.

• • • • •

1: The Animal Protector vs The Animal Hunter.

2: Genuine Depression vs Fake Happiness.

3: The Vegetarian, Give Peas a Chance vs The Ultimate Meat Eater, the Zombie.

4: Horror Film Lover vs Detective Film Hater.

5: Good Book vs Bad Film Adaptations.

Laid Bare is a series of ten photographs, making five paired images, exploring ego and alter ego of myself. The black and white, or limited colour shots, are an exaggerated representation of the real me. The full colour images are what I hate in life.

Some of the subjects are more serious than others because I did not want the series to be too heavy and I also wanted to inject a bit of fun into it. This did bring me out of my comfort zone a little, especially dressing as a clown. Also having a bucket of peas thrown over me in front of a whole group of other students. However,we all suffer to achieve the art we need to create. It also felt good seeing the work that came out of these experiences and it made me want to do more.

The effects were achieved in several ways. Some are straight in camera photographs where the time was spent in setting the lighting and poses, using minimal aftereffects. Others were created using a lot of photo-manipulation. Many of the original shots were done in photoshop. As I gained in confidence with the project, and sitting in front of the camera, some were redone as photographs and the results worked better.

I found this such an interesting project that I intend to continue with it. The time for it was a twelveweek semester. It is not long enough to fully explore this subject. I want to get deeper into it and deeper into my own psyche. I am more confident in being my own model and I am looking to setup more elaborate and detailed images. Also, I do not want to rely on spending time manipulating the images. I want to do more in camera work and learn how to get the image that is in my mind straight to the camera.

Finally, thank you for reading this and looking at my photographs, which, even if you did not like them, I hope they made you think.

Simon Good – Good Photography

The Animal Protector vs The Animal Hunter (photoshop composite)

Genuine Depression vs Fake Happiness (portraiture)

Vegetarianism-Give Peas a Chance. (Unpredictability)

The Ultimate Meat Eater-The Zombie

Love of Horror films vs Dislike of Detective films (Horror using a borrowed image)

Good Book vs Bad Film Adaptation (digital art)

Arranging all the images to make an end of year exhibition.

The end of year degree show requires five images arranged on three A1 boards. Those are the guidelines and the first thing to work out is how to present the images. As they are paired images there is less scope however this can also be a starting point. I have four portrait images and six landscape. This was partially through design and part through planning ahead. The four portrait images will sit together well as quarter A1s. The vegetarian image is facing from left to right so that will make a good lead in top left-hand corner. Also, the sequence goes black and white, colour, black and white, colour. This dictated the layout. The only thing was to place all the images in photoshop and correctly align them.

The two sets of landscape images again had to be one board black and white and one colour. The decision here was which order to place them. As one image contains writing (my personal statement) I wanted that image to be at the bottom, so it was easily read. As with the vegetarian image, the detective is looking from left to right so having that in the top corner works well. This left the clown image in the centre. As it is centralized it balanced well. The other images appeared to balance with choosing this layout.

I now realise that there is as much time spent in presenting work as creating it. A good image can lose its impact if it is not placed and presented to its best. I was lucky, these images were easy to lay out, I had certain parameters that had to be met. Once these were observed the rest worked.

When the files were ready to be sent to the printers, I realized the file size was too big. I went back to the original psd on each and after trimming everything down, including compressing they were still not small enough. I did not want to compress them anymore and risk losing clarity so decided to send them via wetransfer, which had been arranged by the printer. When the images came back the results were worth all the time in planning, shooting, editing, and positioning.

The next decision was where to place them within the exhibition itself. I wanted them together, not going around corners. The four portraits stand separately, but the landscape images will look better if they are pushed together. The minimum wall space I will require, if all the boards are pushed together is 1782 mm x 841 mm, but that leaves no gap between the portrait images and the landscape ones.

This is how the images work together; I would have liked to include an image of them in situ but the deadline for this project will be before the final show.

Photographs that were not included in the final set, plus production images.

Oblique Strategies

Andy Warhol influence

Solarization (digital)

The Good Shepherd (Making a poster)

Text Print (Personal statement)

Gustave Courbet-The Desperate Man

The Watcher

The Use of Green Screen

Original depression shot in colour

The Image used for the Matrix shot

Unused clown shot

Testing the lighting set up for the Detective shot

Images before Photoshop (Raw Images)

A test shot for lighting and set up, I tried something different

Conclusion.

At the beginning of this project, I was looking for artists that would tell me how to do this work, then I found Flora Borsi. Her work and style just screamed out at me. She was the first person I had found who seemed to be creating the same style of work that I wanted to achieve. I had already created a few images in her style. Her mixture of in camera and postproduction was just what I was attempting.

However rather than copy her ideas she inspired me to do my own thing. The mixing of herself with animals was a project I tried before. In fact, my avatar on social media is similar. Having seen her work has shown me a better way of reattempting it.

Racheal Baran showed me a new more subtle approach to using photo manipulation. Her work although startling, is very cleverly done. It is not over the top and has a touch of reality to it. Juliette Jourdain, like Cindy Sherman uses make up and clothing to achieve the results I was attempting through photoshop. When I tried taking the photograph rather than faking it the results were sharper and more believable.

I have been a portrait photographer, on and off, for the last 35 years but I have never really done any self-portraiture. We touched on it in the first semester and I completely missed out on the opportunity during a year of lockdown. It is a fascinating subject and the images possible are only limited by your imagination. It is an art form that allows one to express themselves in any way they want. It can be massively over the top or very subtle.

I have enjoyed this project so much that this summer I will continue working on it. I am going to keep trying new ideas and new images. When I have several pieces, I would like to approach a gallery and a publisher to see if there is any interest in having these pieces displayed or published. I have found a way, as an artist to express what is going round my mind. It is a way of understanding myself and to vent my spleen at all the things in life that wind me up.

This is a style of image making that will not be for everyone. It is hard to look within yourself because sometimes you will not like what you see. It must be approached with a sense of humor too. You cannot take yourself too seriously.

A few of the images were produced postproduction using photoshop, but I am looking to produce some images using different techniques of printing. I would like to produce the Andy Warhol Influence and the Good Shepherd as screen-prints. It will be interesting to compare the difference between a photo manipulated image and an actual print.

Driving into university one morning, running late I was thinking about the project and it coming to an end. It is not finished. 12 weeks is not long enough for self-portraiture. Artists spend their whole lives studying their faces and trying to understand their own psyche. I am wanting to explore this subject both personally and as part of my Masters’ next year. I feel I can take this idea much further. Using the techniques, I have learned this semester and building on it.

This is an ongoing project. The final words,

References. https://mymodernmet.com/rachel-baran-conceptual-photos/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/beee33/ https://www.buzznicked.com/artist-rachel-baran/ https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dora-maar-15766/seven-things-know-dora-maar https://fixthephoto.com/self-portrait-photographers.html https://expertphotography.com/self-portrait-photographers/ http://myportraithub.com/15-most-famous-photographers/ https://art-sheep.com/rachel-barans-poignant-and-surreal-photography/ https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/dora-maar https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/cindy-sherman-1938 https://www.wix.com/blog/photography/art-self-portrait-photographer-juliette-jourdain https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andy-warhol-2121 https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-mapplethorpe-11413 https://www.hasselblad.com/inspiration/stories/flora-borsi/ https://www.lanouefineart.com/artist/Flora_Borsi/biography/ https://www.theartstory.org/artist/mapplethorpe-robert/ https://www.benrobinsphoto.com/photomanipulation https://floraborsi.com/projects https://rps.org/media/4kvcamlr/rps-model-release-form-pdf.pdf https://daralatfalmouth.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/ma-photography-risk-assessment-form2.pdf

https://www.photocrowd.com/photo-competitions/portraiture-photographycontests/?msclkid=3de0dc1f4eba13b1ac2abe73950fec2d&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&ut m_campaign=RT%20-%20UK%20-%20Category%20%20Bing&utm_term=portrait%20photography%20competitions&utm_content=Portrait%20%20Photography%20-%20Competitions