R
elationships
There’s a story and a meaning behind everything in life...
Serena Mackintosh
1312
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ontents
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Photographers’ analysis ___________________
_______________ Photographer’s interpretation
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Photo shoot
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So far
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e-shoots
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ossible ideas
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valuation
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STATEMENT OF INTENT ________________________
Our theme for our Unit 2 Photography Exam is ‘Relationships’. I have chosen to study this theme because I think it creates good creative options for different routes to show the connection between someone and something, thus showing the relationship of it through colour, intimacy, shape etc. Thus opening up a number of creative channels one can take to show and create a relationship with different objects, people or things. Within this project, I’m aiming to show family connections and ties through the use of interactions and facial expressions, similar to Tina Barney’s work. Her ideologies which I will study and analyze and create my own inteperatation of will help influence my journey in this course and help to shape my final outcome and the way I display relationships between myself and my family.
Also another sub section to my project will be the potrayal of single objects used to represent the subject matter’s personality or emotion felt by another family member. Also how an indivdual object within the frame can create a relationship with the overal composition because of its connection of the overall understanding once the composition is viewed in its entirety. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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’m intending to do some research into various artists who will influence my journey into exploring and portraying relationships, such as Tina Barney. She captures photographs within elite social groups of her family and friends, to display their interactions between each other to convey each invidual relationship. She achieves this by positioning everyone within the frame, conveying to the viewer emotion felt by looking at various body codes. Another artist of the same style is Carrie Mae Weems, whose art work creates a sense of narrative within it. Similarly I want my art-work to have a story and meaning behind it, through combining the things I have learnt through Unit 1 and these artists’ works. I intend to complete a number of photo shoots in my chosen theme to explore the ways I can represent relationships both through human gestures and interactions but also how a number of objects together can represent something with a different perspective I want to use props, lighting, mise-en-scene to help expand the narrative of the photographs and help to provoke emotion in my artwork.
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will use techniques learned through other artists’ work and through the skills I have learnt through my coursework; such as shutter speed, aperture and other techniques. I aim to show human interaction and relationships through facial gestures and the interaction and use of space within the composition, I will use this technique throughout my work to help evolve throughout this course.
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hope to learn through this course to go into a deeper understanding of how to display relationships, that it’s not only human relationships, but it can be a number of objects and their link or interaction with another object. I hope to expand and explore the theme of relationships. I can see my final format as being a combination of these two ideas, creating understanding of relationship of that person through the use of an object to symbolise what the person means to the subject and how that person thinks of them. I will also be using double exp sosure to layer the face of the person behind the object and seem to create the effect of the per son coming out of the object and the idea of symbolism.
‘Family’
‘Versilimitude’
TINA ARNEY
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Tina barney, and her reasons behind her photography: ‘‘ precious certain things were to me and that I had to record them. ‘‘
‘Interesting dynamiscs’
T ina Barney was born towards the climax of the Second World war, in New York, America.
Barney is a well known photographer, she is especially known for her colour portraits of heself, family and her friends. Which connote family dynamics and relationships through the engagement of body codes. As can be seen in the following photographs:
As she grew up in New york, her grandfather introduced her to photography at an young age and this fueled her intrerest in collecting photographs. As a teenager she studied Art History at Spence School in Manhattan.
Then in 1976, Barney and her husband moved to Sun Valley, Idaho, where she took a photography course at local art center. This led to Barney starting the primary a career in photography and her sparked her interest into taking photographs of upper class freinds and family by 1980.
_________________________________________________________ By using a 35mm camera she was able to depict family relationships and the wealth of the upper class family.Also, Tina was the first photographer to go beyond 35mm camera and use large format camera to achieve more , detailed work. Her artwork resemble 19th century portraiture of high status people who would have portraits done for theirproxietory to keep in their homes, where Barney has made an more detailed and familiar interpretation into this but adding a modern twist and material goods to the photographer.
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y analysis of
Tina Barney
However I feel as a viewer Barney only concentrates on the material goods the wealth and beauty of her characters not the emotion or carrying, which shows there is another layer to theimages that there is family tension or dynamics being hidden from the viewer.
First art-peice ‘Jill and Polly.’
Also I think Barney is conveying that the mirror and the placement of the photograph and the location taken, in the bathroom suggests that beauty isn’t everything and there is a deeper dynamic going on between the family.
I think the photograph hasn’t been set up, as I can still sense the mood of the Her work is featured in the Museum of raw emotion which must of happened off screen and the tension in the atModern Art in New York City, Mumosphere that I don’t think they could seum of contemporize photography and most recently, in 2011, her art was recreate if they set up the photograph. featured at the Barbican art centre in Also the facial expressions provide eviLondon England. Barney has also be nominated for the John Simon Guag- dence to me especially the mother, as she genheim Memorial Fellowship in 1991 seems to be cought off guard and is surand the 2010 Lucie Award for Achieve- prised to have been takeing a photograph of and you can still see physically by her ment in Portraiture. facial exprssions of her reaction to what the conversation was about through the The subject matter of this photograph look distraughtness in her face. is showing a mother and a daughter, who are in the bathroom and appears to be in a conversation, however as the photograph is taken, the daughter has turned away initializing that the conversation is over or that she doesn’t what to continue the conversation.
The use of lighting has created this third person in the mirror, even though a reflection of the mother, it creates the feeling of a deaper meaning behind the image, that there is a something being hidden from the view in the image and that everything isn’t fine as there is disguarments. On the photograph, however one thing the use of a 35 mm camera creates a loose clarity to the image making the image look artificial and grainy creating a feel of artificial feel to the image and to the overall meaning behing the image.
The mood of the photograph feel as if we,the audience, has been placed in the middle of what appears to be a disagreement between these two characters.
The atmosphere conveys tension and disagreement, through the space being shown in between the two people and through the strained look on the mother’s facial expressions who looks frustrated and annoyed, however this is contrasting with the daughter, who appears to be happy and content possibly signifying that the daughter has won the argument or has been given the chance to avoid talking any further, by turning away and creating even more physical but also emotional distance between the two characters. However this contrast with Barney’s earlier work which show a more functional family Dynamics.
I think this photograph explores ideas of class and of real morals, such as love and family. The composition of the Photographs is very interesting as analytical and of thinking of ways to reproduce this idea into my work and create my own interpretation of these ideas into my work.
‘The grand-daughter’ 2004 ___________________
The mood and the atmosphere of the composition convey a sense of melancholy, as if the grand-Parents are reminiscing about when theywere young and as if there was a image of them at their age that she would be the spitting image. The mood is light with a swinge of expectation by the placement of the grand-parents suggesting at a family lineage of prosperity and wealth creating a sense of expectation for the young girl to follow, as they are placed behind them as they would have been the generations before and born before. I think the image explores the sense of class and expectation, due to the role of subject matter and through the subject matters interactions and gestures, indicating a meaning and purpose behind the art-work. On frame on the right side of the page. Creating a sense of a second reality and sense of their being another side to the story rather than what is being shown withing the frame of this composition.
‘The grand-daughter’ 2004 __________________
I think the composition has been stylised as there isn’t the normal sense of radiation of love and warmth you would expect to be shown between a child and her grand-parents. There is a sense of almost acting about it and that they have been told to sit like this in order for Barney to take the photograph. It creates a contridactery of traditional photographs with grand-parents and change what we are familiar with and is use to seeing. thus creating a new interest wave in Barney work. Almost the subject matter is the art work itself, due to the idea of suggestion and a deaper meaning behind each pose and interaction creating the viewer to become eqiztive about the subject matter and want to read and develop into the photograph and come up with these ideas. different values and messages with the social elite. This image has a large depth of field and this image seems to have three points of intrest which all need to be taken into consideration when viewing this photograph. The far background of the image, the third that containds the grand-parents are the history or the linage of the family that have established this sense of social elite and has provided for the girls mother and daughter, creating this sense of family history and almost a sense of preasure to follow after due to the nature of them facing towards the child in a wondering eqsitive manner and seem to be influencing her and watching over her to follow
‘The grand-daughter’ 2004 __________________
The use of colour seem to be dominantly red, which suggests sepression or a feeling of anguish or frustration, which could be a representation of what the child is feeling by having to keep to this code of following the social elite and following the social norms of rich. _________________________________________________________
I will use this image for my work, as I like how it plays with social norms and the idea of using family as a narrative to sugest and provide even more information and to convey more meaing to the viewer and how we can almost create a story by placement of props and having costume and mise en scene to suggest meaning, mood and atmosphere. _____________________________________________________________
The middle ground consit of the girl and her reflection, representing the pres ent and the prosperity of the family linage, she is differently dressed to her grand-parents, who are in suits whilist she is in a polar shirt and seems to be creat ing a sense of tension through this dress choise as she goes against the social norm. ___________________________________________________
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arrie Mae Wimms
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‘Conceptual’
orn in Portland, Oregon on 20th of April, 1953. Weems grew up during the civil right movement. When African American were fighting for the same rights, equality, and freedom of speech. Thiswould of influenced her to her chosen profession of taking photographs of serious African American challenges as she would of witness first hand injustice that took place during the later part of the 20th centuary, especially-during the 1960’s.
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he decided to continue her arts schooling and attended the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, graduating at the age of 28 with her B.A. While in her early twenties, Carrie Mae Weems was politically active in the labor movement as a union organizer. Her first camera, which she received as a birthday gift from her then-boyfriend, was used for this work rather than for artistic purposes.
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he was inspired to pursue photography only after she came across The Black Photography Annual, a book of images by African-American photographers including Shawn Walker, Beuford Smith, Anthony Barboza.This led her to New York City, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, where she began to meet other artists and photographers such as Frank Stewart and Coreen Simpson, and they began to form a community.
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n 1983, Carrie Mae Weems completed her first collection of photographs, text, and spoken word, called Family Pictures and Stories. The images told the story of her family, and she has said that in this project she was trying to explore the movement of black families out of the South and into the North, using her family as a model for the larger theme
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arrie Mae Wimms
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he subject matter of this photograph, is a group of women, who I presume the adults are the children’s mothers, who are sitting around a rectangle table, enjoying some entertainment.
was interested in this Photograph as I like how the three women all have their arms being fuzzy from shutter speed, so this indicates to me that the photograph was taking mid action.
like how the photograph forms a narrative almost as if life is passing by the three others as the centre subject matter is frozen in time and isn;t effected by their atmosphere and through shutter speed. Also the centre character is dressed in a seperate colour to the other characters suggesting she’s emotionally or socially separate towards them. It alsmost communicates to me a sence of motherly love and a sense of melancholy. Through the use of shutter speed, it symbolises a passing of time, maybe the people towards the left of the photograph is the child grown up and is now a women and now her own children, showing this changing of time and the reverasal of roles. As the face of the women on the right, looks as if she is related to the girl on the far left, creating an establishment of character and depciting a sence of narrative of the girl growing up and following the same sort of social class.
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think the photograph potrays idea’s of class and the role of women. Weems was a feminist and was key role in the feminist movement. So i think she is trying to convey the role of women durring the 20th centuary and who it depicts a sad cycle for women, as their role was to bring up the children and dind’t have many opporutnites to pursue a career. The photograph makes me feel frustrated for the treatment and the little quality of life the women had durring this era. litttle children had little prospects of having a beter quality of life and
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he use of colour reflects the mood and the meaning of the image, how everything seems black and white, that the mother seems apprehensive and has anxiety for her daughter future as she knows what is going to happen and that she will have little quality of life as she is going to take on the role of being a mother. _____________________________________________________________
can link this to my work as I like the use of techniques of shutter speed and apperture used in this photograph to help enhance the overall effect and to convey the message behind the art peice. I will use this technque in my art work to help explain further my ideas of relationhsip and to explore more ways to show it without having to orchestrate it through models and body codes such as in Tina barney work. I also like how they form a narative behind it and helps to create a story within the composition which I would like to encouperate with the displaying of relationship within the frame.
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arrie Mae Wimms
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he subject matter of the photograph is a mother and her daughter who appears to be applying make on each other. Again I think the photograph potrays the role of women during the twentieth century as desirable objects for men instead of being their own person. Also this makes me feel frustrated almost as if it’s teaching the child at an early stage, that we need to beauty to look good for men and that it foreshadows how the child is going to live her life. __________________________________________________________
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he use of colour helps to convey their position. The white dress on the child, represents innocence and almost irony as her lost of innocence is being lost at such a young age due to social convections of women during this time. It almost changes a special sweet thing a daughter would do, as she wants to be like her mother. Thus wanting to miimick her and also put on make-up however there is a more sinister and social class regulations underlining this photograph. The black dress the women is The light thatofis innocence above them, a white Thisand could depict thebecome white a wearing,lso shows this loss sheisonce hadcolour. as a child how she has that is sepressing them and is of thewomen. reason why there is this lost victim ofsocial her influence circumstances and he circumstances of innocence and this strict unforgiving way of life. ______________________________________________________________
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The photograph conveys a conflict within the mood of the photograph between the mother and daughter relationship and this loss of innoence from the regulaiton of following the social norms of the day. It creates a inner-tension of the photograph as the established connnection seems to be ating in a loving manner and it’s sweet however the postioning of light and the characters suggests a more sinister reason.
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I like how Weems uses spacing and objects to show and represent connection between all the objects used in the composition, i liek how you don’t have to use a body code such a facial expressions and gestures to suggest connection you can use objects and props to suggest thoughts and emotions.
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____________________ My Interperation on the artist’s work ____________________
_________________ First Photo shoot _________________ Maternal relationship between mother and daughter.
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y intention in these photographs, was to capture photographs that show social elite and show the relationship between family members; mother and daughter, and the occasionally strained emotions and scenarios that occur during the adolescent years. hen I viewed Barney’s work, the words I thought of instantly were closeness, suppression, awkwardness, love, understanding and companionship and I wanted to display this within my photographs.
used body codes such as interactions, facial expression, orientation, general appearance, contact or lack of it to help provoke thoughts through these motions that convey meaning and relationships, my aim is to provoke the same emotion that I felt with Tina Barney’s work. ______________________________________________________
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n the photographs above, I wanted to show the pre-production of Tina Barney’s work.
wanted to take photographs of mother and daughter interactions which showed the mother helping the daughter into ‘adult hood’ by teaching the ways of the social elite and helping her through a emotional and heart full moment, when the mother helps her daughter get ready. As can be seen in ‘The Grand-Parents’
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t seems to remove the sense of emotion and replaces the removal of emotion into a sense of social regulation of being part of the social elite. I used the colour white as an index of innocence and how it shows the purity and as a index of the emotion felt by both, daughter and mother and show the closeness of our relationships. I decided to dress the models in white as it shows almost a sence of purity almost creating a internal conflict within the composition.
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he emotion of the moment of a teenager asking her mother to help her get
ready, especially if the relationship is strained at times, this should be a heart felt moment however due to the social regulations and pressures of being part of the social elite you it ruins this moment and causes a sence of conflict within the image.
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n the top photographs I wanted to capture personality between mother and daughter. I wanted to take photographs that convey intimation and the love mothers and daughter have for each other through the use of body language, intimacy and through interactions.
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wanted to convey to the viewer, thoughts of maternal love, frustration, teenage rebellion and personality. I think the best photographs out of that photo-shoot were these four photographs, seen above. The first photograph that show my mother and I positioned close together to convey the status of our relationships and to convey the sence of love between mothers and daughter relationships. I than made a face to convey my personality as often my mother calls me a scamp, and I want to create this sense of personality in these photographs.
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he use of space in this photograph is important. I wanted to create a sense of direction for the viewer to see the image with and to potray the closeness of relationship. The objects locate around the room, such as the laptop, chair’s and sofa’s are represented as material goods and sulphrus objects than have no true value to the person as they are material goods. However the strenght and the true value of love, especially a mother’s love, is shown in these images. How the value of relationships outweigh the value of material goods. ______________________________
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rom their parents for more object based and for parties, friendships the mother love goes beyond and never stops loving and thinks of you, at all times of the day and wants the best for you. I wanted to symbolise the physical ‘loss’ of the person as they have gone to university, as she remembers and looks back melancholy missing him. I stylised the scene by making everything symbolise his personality 5thus metaphorically suggesting her missing him and her thoughts.
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lso I organised everything in a way that shows that he has moved on to widen his exploration by having everything prescience and preserved, to show the abesence of his person in the room and to convey a sense of the model missing her son.
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wanted to take photographs that provokes strong emotion and responce, Such as the image of the mother on the bed, with her hands out. This is for the love of her children and how even though the have ‘left the nest.’ and have go on to explore life, and might distant them selves In these photographs. I was exploring the feelings and the emotions felt by the mother and how, family is a true message between them. Eeven though there are arguments the love never dispates and at the end of the day, teenagers have to realise, this. _____________________________
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n conclusion, I like the photographs that convey meaning and relatinship through the use of setting, interactions, facial expressions, I thought that worked well and seemed to convey across my intention of displaying meaning and the status of relationship. I want to explore using shutter speed and apperture to convey relatinships of people in relation to the others in the room, by using technoloy to improve how to display meaning and use new ways in creating mood and atmosphere. I want to use also, other objects that can represent the people in the frame relatonship. use objects than can represent the family relatinship and use of nature to explain feeling felt by the person.
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want to explore in my next photo-shoot, ideas of tested family relationship between mother and daughter and use shutter speed and apperture to convey this. Aswell as looking at Family hisotry and how to use objects to convey meaning of the relationship between people. ____________________________________________________________
In this image, I wanted to capture relationship through body codes of touch and interaction. In this photograph, I wanted to capture the love and union between mother and daughter. I focused on using interactions as a representation of relationship, I used the interaction of touch of the holding fingers of the maternal relationship. The holding of fingers, represents this promise of enternal love and paitence.
I decided to do a close up of the hands touching to really emphaise the subject of this image.
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Main aim of photo shoot The main aim of the photo shoot was to capture photographs to show relationships between mothers and daughters. I used devices used to convey meaning of love, frustration, intimacy through the display of interactions, facial expressions, gestures.
Date of photo shoot 10th April 2015
Shutter speed range (secs) 1/17 to 1/50
Aperture range(f numbers) 2.2 - 5f
ISO 320- 3200
Photo shoot ideas
-Show true values of relationships through love of parents. - To show personality through interactions, facial gestures.
Photo shoot evaluation I though the best photographs when taking the photographs through interaction and facial expression, the ones which were more natural and were I didn’t tell the model what to do, but told her my inention and she did what she inteperated what she took from my theme, creating more heartfelt and more raw edge to the photographs. The best photographs I took when I was concentrating on showing objects making the person when I concentrated on the deeper meaning and objects which represent someone, showing true morals such as family and love helped to show the true depiction of the subject matter.
_______________ Second Photo-shoot
On the theme of Relationships ___________________________________
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In this photo-shoot I wanted to use techniques from Carrie Mae Weems work, of displaying families through the use shutter speed and apperture to create meaning and atmosphere through the use of spacing, both near and far, and creating spacing to reflect meaning and attitude of the people within the composition. I incorporated the use of mise en scene, setting, lighting, positioning that I have learnt also to help create technical ways to convey more meaning and understanding. I copied Tina Barney’s s ways of creating family relationships from grand-parents and great grandparents through the use of other media such as photographs to convey heartfelt emotion.
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narrative
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n this photograph, I wanted to create a narrative through the use of props and interactoins shown within the composition. The two people in that frame are my great-grand parents. My great-grand father, fought durring world war one, and the hat in the right side of the image is hat to what he would wear. This create a connection between two in animate objects, as they share a common bond of belonging to the person within the frame, and would of warn something like that during his service.
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hen the model seems to respond to the connection, as she looks as if she is upset and saddened due to his injuries from war, also they are my mother grand-parents and their paths would have crossed in their life time and would have formed a strong relationship,making it even more poinant. The model seems to respond to it, through the use of facial expressions.
This photograph is similary to the original photograph of the cap and the postioning of the person within the frame to show connection. The image was inspired by Tina Barney’s work on grand-parents, I wanted to con vey family relationships and family generations. I wanted to convey that it’s what my great-grandparents have lived through the world war, we were created as their promxiety.
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In this photograph, I was focusing on trying to show a narrative within the composition
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The narrative of this next photograph is different in the series, however it’s showing the relationship that a father and daughter has.
I was trying to convey an emotional image of the frame witholds a picture of the girl , who was a baby then, and her father. The father, isn’t alive anymore, and thus has lost than earthy connection between them.
The girl misses her father and wants to try and reconnect with him through the photograph. I used soft colours to suggest a melancholy feel to the image, conveying the thoughts of the girl. I decided to have the model face away from the camera, the model resembles after her father, by having her facing away
from him, it creates this sense of anomonility, this is how the girl feels after loosing her father, she knows this man, who shares the same hobbies and feature, yet is unable to connnect to him, as she was so young. This is also shown through space in the image, she is reaching her arms out wide creating a sense of distance between the people. This shows how she doesn’t connect or recognise him, and the connection between when the photograph was taken and now, is the inbility of re etsablishing her connection with her fahter.
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I wanted to play with the idea, of non existing through the use of shutter speed to make the person look as if they’re an apprition, ghost like figure, to create the sence of fear and the horrors of the great war. I wanted to put the frame in the front view to suggest this is the start of the family tree and that my mother was the next generations, trying to create an narrative through the postioning of the frame and the use of shutter speed. I wanted my mother to be in the background to show that without them, she wouldn’t be alive, and to reinforce this I used shutter speed, to make it look as if she is apprition.
I used a low shutter speed of 0/50, which enabled me to get the fading effect of the model in the composition. I wanted to follow Carrie Mae Weems use of shutter speed to almost make the images look as if they’re moving and depicting a time lapse of time in the 1st of the series of the images, is another angle of my original photo-shoot. The photograph looks as if the person is moving within the frame however I just layered three images together , where the model was in different positions. This reflects the evolution of the future generations that has occured from her and the grand-parents. It also shows the transition of stages that she would go through in her life as she grows older. _______________________________________________________________
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Similarly to my writing, I wanted to crop and re size the important aspects to this image. For example I increased the size of the portrait as that’s the subject and the achorage to the understanding of this image. I then positioned the rest of the imags behind that, the imge of the future generations. I think this organisation was really effective in my composition, as it hilights the important areas and aspects of the composition. Also by doing this, it makes the image emphaise looking at all aspects of the image and then in it’s interiely. _________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________ I incorporated facial expressions and gestures into the photograph , to convey meaning and their relationship. I used postioining of the models to convey meaning and mood of the photograph. I like how there seems to be a conflict between foreground and background. As the mother is happy and loving as she remembers her time with her daughter,. In contrast with the background of the daughter now, who is a teenager , and is the age where there is often conflict between them. ________________________________________________________
Digital edits; ___________
Main aim of photshoot The aim of the photo shoot was to take an reshoot of a previous photographs interpertation and to expand our ideas, using tecniques laernt through the year, using shutter speed amd apperture.
Date of photo shoot 11th of April 2015.
Shutter speed range (secs) 1/17 to 1/50
Light source Artificial lighting, lamp Aperture range(f numbers)
ISO
2.2 - 5f
320- 3200
Photo shoot ideas
-To create a narrative through the use of props, interaction, gestures, space to depict meaning and to provoke a emotional responce in the viewer. - To show family interactions and involvement through the use of gestures and interactions.
Photo shoot evaluation - The use of shutter speed was a good effect to convey a sense of melancholy and mystery to the image, and was good to help crete narrative. - I would expand to try different media instead of using old picture frames, i want to use objects and props to convey meaning and thoughts of people through the use of that instead of using media. I want to also try and experiment with the use of scanograms to try and expand the idea of exploring narrative.
So Far...
_____________________________ What made me decide on my chosen theme? _________________________________
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have decidede to use relationship as my chosen theme to study over the course of my unit 2 photography exam, to help expany my inteprertation of relationships and the connection between objects and people can be shown within a composition. I think realtionship will help to expand the literal explanation and help to create a deaper understanding of it.
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How have I explored the theme of relationships? ____________________________________________ I have explored the theme by doing deciding to do section four on the page, and following inspiration through Tina Barney’s work on people connections through family or freinds interraltionship shown through body codes such as facial expressions to convey across to the viewer mood, atmospheres, such as famiily tension, love, patience. I first wanted to show relationship like that, however than I reaslised I wanted to create a narrative from each photograph through the use of different factors of objects, props and postioning and deciding what to leave on and what to leave out of the composition. Then I wanted to show relationships through objects as symbolism of a person, through the use of nature, objects to personify the person relationship with that person through personifying. What they think of them. For example a mothers beauty, I would take a photograph of a blossom tree, to represent how beautifull she is and how the person uses the establishment of connection through objects to present how they think of them.
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What did I learn from this research about the theme?
I have learnt how to display relationships instead of just using interacions and facial expressions , I found out a deaper meaning behind it and found new ways on displaying relationships through influence of artist research, I have completed and thinking of ways that I have learnt has helped me display relationships.
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Which photographers have I researched into and how have they helped develop my understanding of the theme? ______________________________________________________
I have researched into artists such as Tina Barney and Carrie Mae Weems to help explore and develop my understanding of relatinships. Weems has shaped my idea of creating a narrative in my photo-shoots. By carefully chosing props, postioning, lighting and techniques to all connnect to create a story within the composition, thus helping to expand upon my work on Tina Barney, of showing relationships through interactions, gestures, facial expresssions and body language. ____________________________________________________________________________________
How did I use the photographers ideas in my work to develop my ideas? ___________________________________________
My original photo-shoot was based on Tina Barney’s workof showing interactins and connections
between various family members and social elite. I wanted to concenttrate on showing maternal relationships. However when I anaylysed Carrie Mae Weems work of creating narrative in her photographs through the use of objects instead of body codes, I started to think about displaying relation ships using objects nad phyiclally instead of showing conections to people through gestures and inteactins, helping me to expand into telling narratuve about my family and grandparents, helping to encouperate Tina Barney work into my next stage of developments.
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Which photo shoots have I completed so far and how do they relate to the theme? ________________________________________________
I have completed two photo-shoots so far on the theme of relationships. My first phot
To-shoot relates the theme as they covey connections and interactions between two people, that through the use of body codes show intimintancy, love, frustration helping to convey the sence of the relationship between these two people. In the second photo-shoot, I was concentrating on displaying a narrative in my photo-shoot, and relying on objects to convey the person and the emo tions and interactions and their involvment with our family. I used various objects that define or are related to the person to create an establishment of connection between them, thus forming a
relationship.
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What camera settings have I used in the photo shoots and why?
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I have used manuel techniques from the camera to enhance the idea of creating a narration and helping to increase the quality of my vision of the photo-shoot. I have been using various levels of shutter speed, by changing the amount the shutter is left open for, thus helping to create the effect of someone moving around and the effect of an aprition. I have also used apperture, depth of feild, by having things in focus our of focus thus helping to create positioning of objects in the frame and helping me in praticular in the second photo-shoot.
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What refinements to these techniques could I apply to improve the effect?
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I would like to expand the effects digitially as I feel as if i use the same tecnniques multiple times, I would like to learn new ways in editing photographs to have a greater impact of each photograph. I also don’t like how editng the images seem to change the effect of the compositon and the colouring,layering techniques to create another
feel and add emotion That I’m unable to create manually and from the camera.
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Which techniques and processes do I want to take on further _______________________________________
I want to expand the idea of using objects as a persofication of one’s thoughts and relationships. I want to try new techniques such as double expsosure to help enhance the displaying of my ideas and help to show the realtionship physically, as the understanding of the mening behind it may not be there by showing and depicting more family connections through the same means.
I want to create a short story of the subject matter in each photograph by using objects relating to them and also I want to epand the objects to the nature and the surroundings. re-arranging the order, repettion, layering to help epxand the idea of relationships within the actual composition and the art-work on it. as wel as expanding my techniques on creating and displaying art work in preperation for my final peice. I have also used digital techniques on photoshop and camera raw that enhance again the definition of the artwork and the ways I can display narrative. I used repiition, reflections
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Which photo shoots do I need to develop further and why? _____________________________________________
I need to develop further my second photo shoot, I like the idea of creating a narrative on imagery and props and I would like to expand this in my next photo shoot. I want to do this because I think this will give me more examples and opportunies of displaying relationship. It creates a deaper understanding as you start to think about the overal composition rather than one aspect. I think I need to expand into using objects and techniques in creating a deaper construction of my ideas and aims.
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What
ideas do I have for the display strategy? __________________________________________________________________________________
I want to display some more maneul edits in my sketch-book to develop my ideas for my final peice and to see what different combinations work and don’t work and to see how my final format will look like through trial and error. I would also want to experimentwith narrative techniques and using imagery as a personification of one’s thoughts. I want to keep my photo-graphs more natural and less heavily edited as the main focus of atention is the meaning behind the image and the composition.
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EXAMPLES OF IDEAS I INTEND TO DO, FOUND ON PINTEREST _____________________________________
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Scanography __________
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In this image, I wanted to capture a sense of adventure within the image. Similarly to my theme, I used inspiration from Stephen Gill artwork ‘Inside out’ of objects relating to the overall composition.
I scanned in the various objects of the scan, compass and flowers. Then I went into camera raw and edited the image, to further enhance the quality of the image. I increased the clarity of the objects and increased the white aspects of the image and increased the black to create a strong contrast. I then went into camera raw and placed a image, taken in Australia, of an wave crashing onto a wave. This represents the inspiration and thoughts of another, who longs to visit her home country of Australia. This passion stretches over oceans, therefore using a flower stem to stretch across the page, and mimick this emotion.
I wanted to use a flower to connote flourishment. The flowers represent the authors thoughts of wanting to beigin a life outside this picture in Australia. How she wants to sustain and cherish her memorires and ideas of starting life in Australia.
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In this photograph, I wanted to capture a sense of melochony. I wanted to capture the essense of memories of the person, who is remembering her time in her country. Again, similarly to the previous image, I scanned in various objects that can create a narrative once place togehter in one composision.
I created a layering effect between the scanned items and the image of the sea, behind the image. I then went on the layering tool and elected ‘soft focus’ This meant the back layer whould show through the front image of the flowers and objects, and create the effect seen on this page.
My reason behind this image was to create a sense of melachony and narrative within it. The photographs’ mood conveys a sense of longing and journey, which the person is thinking about when she pictures her home, Australia.
Narrative is created when all the objects are anaylsed. The flower, represents beauty and comitment. This then potrays the girls thought of her comitment to her country and her diserment of comming back home. The sea shells are connected to the background image of the sea, conveying a sense of connection between both layers. This reflects how even though she is away from her country, her country impact on her has kept with her even though she is no longer in the countr
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__________________________________________________ I n this image I wanted to play with the popular saying:
‘‘Money doesn’t grow on trees.’’
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and try and create a juxtposition of ideas. This photographs is create a visual representation of this saying. I arranged money around the flower, to look as if money was growing out of it. I did this because there is a deaper connection involved in this saying. Money is made from paper, which is sourced from trees. This therefore creates a connection between these two objects, And thus a relationship.
It also creates this idea of before and after, as paper has resulted from a tree. I also took this ideology thurfer by editing the image, to become black and white. To create a metaphor of how money, corruption and consumermism is all damading the beauty of the enviornment in more ways then one. I used camera raw, to make the edit black and white, to symbolis the draining of colour from the petals.
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In this scann, I wanted to capture the essence of Australia and the person’s thoughts about it.
Again, following on from using imagery of the person’s thoughts, I wanted to use objects to help create this construction. The person imagines the sights, smells and feelings of being an Australian. The nativeflower represents her roots of family and herself, and is iconic image when she reminces about her home. Similarly, I used a photograph which describes the Australian landscape from the famous poet; Dorothy McKeller and her Famous line:
‘Wide brown land.’
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I wanted to capture the aspect of the wide brown land, by having the backrgound be imbeded on this scenery. This then creates an achorage of thought and shows the imagery the person thinks of when she remnices about her Australia.
I also used a tag which had the iconic landmarks of London to hang from the flower. This symbolises how she is weighed down by her current location and how even though she’s physically in London, on the other side of the world, her heart and her spirit is in her home.
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Third photo shoot _______________
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In the third photo shoot, I wanted to follow the inspiration from Carries narrativework and explore deeper into how to create narrative within the composition.
I used lighting, mise en scene and postioning to enhance the creation of narrative. In this series of photographs, I wanted to use original photographs from original photographs. Then I postioned the subject with them and used them as a prop to show connection as well as relationship like in Barney’s grand parents work.
I also then tried to create a narrative through elements and objects, I wanted to try and make my artwork more ‘true’ by using softer and more original photographs, rather than thick edits.
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In this photo-shoot, I wanted to show relationship through the use of placement and through the following of the model arms to create an establishment of connection between them. I wanted to follow the same idelogies and technicques from Tina Barnrey’s work, I wanted to create the sense of linelogy through people and props.
The portrait on the wall is my grand-mother who is placed underneath her suggesting she is her offspring, and the next generation of our family tree. I then formed a connection through the direction of the person’s arm reaching towards the photographs on the table. These then span the next generation that results from her.
I made sure the wallpaper was yellow, to reflect the emotion and thought of the people within the photograph. Yellow can be connoted as contentness and happiness, I think these are perfect adjectves to describe the thougts of the people, and that they provoke these emotions when they are around.
I like the idea of using objects and colours as a way of symbolising emotion or thoughts of another, In my next photo shoot, I will like to take this further.
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This illustrates the gap between our generations and how they are becoming increasingly distant from living in two different time periods as well as the difference of how people spend time together: oral ,speech and spending time together now, being corrupted by facebook, twitter and minimising the amount of time being spent together creasing the sense of gap between our two contrasting generations. I exaggerated this by using a high shutter speed of 0.4 to create the fuzziness of the image, to symbolise the sense of distance, as well as creating the sense of the two generations being separate and distant. This can be seenby the second image below.
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This next image is reflecting the sense of distance between generations, grandparents and the grand children, on how times have changed through social conventions and rules. I used lighting in this image, to convey tension and frustration. The darker lighting on the left, reflects the feelings and thoughts of the person in the portrait in the far left. I like how the mood is conveyed in this photograph, and how it creates an impression on the viewer.
I edited the image, to apear more daker in some aspects of the photograph. I went into camera raw on photo shop and manipulated the different measurements of black and white dimensions. I therefore altertered this to make their be a contrast between the differnt colour aspects and therefore create a mood and a reason behind why. __________________________________________________________________
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In this image, I wanted to create a sense of emotion connnection within the narrative of the photograph. I wanted to have the model look up to her Grand-mother as she is her inspiration. I made the model and the picture seem to create a emotional connection through the apereance of looking at each other. This creates senergy, as a mood is formed in the moment. A mood of love and proudness as the Granddaughter reminices about her time she spent with her grandmother.
I made the model in yellow, as it again represents the the happiness that is assosiated with her experiences with her grand-mother and their memories.
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In this image, I wanted to create a narrative of a mothers love. Sometimes, especially teenagers push their parents love to the limits and occasionaly have disputes. One moment, there could be a strong realationship and another when there is tension I used shutter speed to make it look as if the subject was in two postions. This represents the two diffferent sides of the strained relationship. The usual which is the original postion of the model, where she is leaning in towards her mother. This shows her normal relationship with her mother and the conections of love. The second postion, then symbolises the strained relationship between mother and daughter where their relationship is strained due to arguments.
I really like how the image seem to convey the sense of fluctations of a mothers and daughter’s relationship. How this can be strained however, the love always remains. I think this photograph captures the essence of this.
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Main aim of photo shoot The main aim of the photo shoot was to take re-shoots of the second photo shoot, to explore the concept of creating a narrative in the photographs and to convey relationship through them
Shutter speed range (secs)
Aperture range(f numbers)
ISO
1/17 to 1/50
2.2 - 5f
320- 3200
Date of photo shoot
Light source Artificial lighting, lamp
Photo shoot ideas -Object based photo shoot, to convey person’s relationship with another. - Diversifying and using new objects to display meaning of connection.
Photo shoot evaluation -I really like how the mystique of the cfs spray turned out and I would like to try and do more images using props, trees to see how i can develop the idea of creating a symbolism of one’s self. - I also like the natural editing skills and the use of not making everything so harshly edited nad more natural.
Fourth photo shoot
Objects representing
relationship through symbolism
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In this photo-shoot, I wanted to focus on displaying relationship through objects and symbolism. Following on from my previous photograph’s, I followed the sametheme of family relationships; particularity mother and daughter. I used similar objects and wildlife to connote the thoughts and feeling about that person, as well as, looking at objects to convey their personality.
I wanted to expand the thoughts of relationship by looking to display the idea of relationship through people’s thoughts and through objects. I think my ideas have expanded since the beginning and that you can display relationship through different ways instead of through interactions. I feel as if I have achieved this through my photo shoots and that I have conveyed emotion and thoughts through my image to convey symbolism.
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_____________________________________________________ In this photograph, I wanted to convey the thoughts and emotion of a girl who is reminiscing about her home, Australia. I wanted to follow DorothyMakellar’s poem: ‘My country’ that features the line ‘the wide brown land for me.’ I wanted to convey this in the photograph, through the use of double exposure. I used facial expression and location to convey the thoughts of the girl. I then layered the effect of the location behind her, to suggest how she is part of this ‘wide brown land.’ and how she belongs to it. I used facial expression, such as the longing eyes, to convey heartfelt and absence of something in the subject. I think this photograph properly conveys her thoughts of her country and how she longs to go back to her home.
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Similarly, in this photograph I used location of our home- roots to convey how we are connected to our country still in thought.
Instead of, my earlier images where the subject is the result of a person’s thoughts and feelings. This image is the direct result of the person feelings and thoughts of their home. I also used facial expression to show the reaction and the connection between the person and the location.
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In this photo-shoot I was concentrating on conveying the thoughts and feelings of another to the viewer through symbolism. I did this by using double exposure of two images, where I created a mask around the subject matter face, my mother, and then pasted the image I determined to be my background behind it. I than pressed the layering tool to create different contrasts and layering techniques. This photograph, is symbolic as it connotes that she can withheld any forces and that she’s strong. I think this is symbolic of my mother and connotes the thoughts and feelings of the person who is thinking of her. __________________________________________________________
Main aim of photo shoot The main aim of the photo shooot was to take re-shoot’s of the Third photo shoot, to explore the concept of creating a narrative in the photographs and to convey relationship through them
Date of photo shoot
Shutter speed range (secs)
Aperture range(f numbers)
ISO
Light source
1/17 to 1/50
2.2 - 5f
320- 3200
Artificial lighting, lamp
Photo shoot ideas -Object based photo shoot, to convey person’s relationship with another. - Diversifying and using new objects to display meaning of connection through the use of double exsposure
Photo shoot evaluation -I really like how the mystique of the cfs spray turned out and I would like to try and do more images using props, trees to see how i can develop the idea of creating a symbolism of one’s self. - I also like the natural editing skills and the use of not making everything so harshly edited nad more natural.
___________________________________________________________ In this photograph I also wanted to create symbolism of my mother’s role in our family. I used double exposure to create the effect seen opposite.
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reating a sense of comparison of the beauty of spring influencing the blossoming of the tree and the beauty of my mother. Also helping to have a lighter and loving feel to the image. My final outcome of my work was a symbolism art piece of the relationship between mother and daughter. My idea of the work, was that the daughter is using symbolism for comparison of her mother’s beauty. Even though the daughter isn’t present in the art-work, her influence is catered and is shown through the rep-
resentation of the blossoming tree and her mother. The symbolism is, that the blossom shows the forever blooming and passionate love, a mother holds for her children. The love that withholds all conditions and stages, childhood, adolescent, adult, and still blossoms and is phorsprous for ever.
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ossible IDEA ONE Double exsposure
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wanted to follow my photo-shoot’ ideas of following the use of nature to convey personification of the somones thoughts about them and the use of objects as the establishment of connection between them.
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wanted to use the original photo-shoot idea of potraying maternal relationships between mother and daughter, through the daughter thoughts about her mother and the use of objects to display these thoughts. I would use a nature object to show what the daughter thinks of her mother, as they display true beauty and is forever flourishing, just like a mother’s love, creating a good symbolisim of the mother and daughter relationship. Than I thought about two things that compliment each other nature and mother as they are both beautifull, helping to create an establishment of connection between them and the symbolism of the love.
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than went to find a tree that I knew would resemble the outline of a face, and I saw this tree and thought I could easilly fit a mask of a face within it, thus creating the effect as seen above. I will use a technique known as double expsosure, where you create the image above through the use of layering and creating masks.
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o after editing it and creating a mask, I than dragged the edited image across from camera raw to phot-shop and used a layering tool, to have the face come through the tree branches.
can see this on a A2 size piece of paper, where I would layer two images of the original photograph of my mother behind the edited one. I than would use the scalpol to follow the tree branches and to peal back layers to reveal the orignal photgrah underneath. which depicts the
realtionship between the beauty of the blossoms and the beauty of the subject creating an establishment of connection between them thus forming a relationship.
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was inspired by Weems work on objects and how they are used to convey meaning and realationships, so I wanted to experiment with this durring my third and fourth photo-shoot to see how this would be on a photograph. I like how her photographs reveal personification of the subject thoughts through mise en scene, lighting, space and interaction to create meaning.
POSSIBLE IDEA #2
Re-arranging order
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or a possible idea, I wanted to use two photographs; One of myself and one of my mother.
wanted to compare the similarities and difference between our generations and how our interactions has changed over time. want to show the connection between mother and daughter through the use of altering key features of our faces, such as; The eyes.
To create repetition of this and place it in different angles, ti really emphaise this feature. I also based my work, on artist research, I undertook earlier in this course on David Hockney’s self potrait photograph, of the different angles photograph showing a timelasp within the frame of the comosition. I wanted to base that ideology in my work and wanted to create an idea of different perspeictive and angles can be seen within my work. To create this effect, I used two different angle photographs; one which was facing towards the camera-man and the other, facing towards a different angle. I than cut out using the majic tool, arround the key feature I wanted to emphaise or repostion, and then placed this on the a alternative angle one to create the effect as seen in the images. i also used a layering tool, to, once I have finnished re-arranging the images, to layer the two photograph on each other and used ‘dissolve’ to create the effect.
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valuation of project
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O1:Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
the use of body codes, as illustrated on Barney’s work and I thought that was a good initial starting point for my project. Then as I started researching Carrie Mae Weems, I began to explore a deeper understanding of relation started exploring our theme of reship. I think Weems was the more inlationships through the progression of strumental in my investigation of relaideas and thoughts of artist research tionship as it was her ideologies that techniques. helped me develop my ideas of narrative. Weems uses objects, people and The artists’ research in which I invesplaces to determine the narrative of tigated relating to my chosen question as they both convey relationship her photographs. I wanted to create a narrative in my photography through through the use of body codes to create connection between people, the use of objects and placement places and objects to show their rela- of images to create a storyline to my photographs and the people who are tionship. illustrated within the image. My own ideas began to emerge from this point I started out my investigation with Bar- on and through the careful and sustained investigation my ideas started to ney’s work on portraying family relationship through interactions and ges- expand into investigations of symbolism and personification. tures. I showed connection through
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AO2: Experiment with and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and rethinking work as it develops. (Approx. 200 words)
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experimented with a range of media including photo shop to edit and enhance my photographs and to add extra effects to my photographs. I also experimented with scanography, a process where an object can be placed onto a scanner and be transferred onto the computer in two dimensional form.
images were too heavily edited. So in for my third and fourth shoots, I used more natural techniques to convey relationship.
AO3: Record in visual and/or other forms ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, demonstrating wanted to use these techniques to an ability to reflect on work and proexpand my thoughts about relation- gress. (Approx. 200 words) ship and help show relationship in a different perspective. By doing this, it has helped me create a new form to my y ideas have been relevant to my art-work and be able to see the practiintention as I have been expericality of a technique in comparison to menting different forms of relationship. another. My journey has evolved from famiI can link my edits with Carrie Mae ly relationship through interactions Weems as I have been using some and gestures, later evolving to conotmonochrome images in my art-work ing of narrative and then imagery and to create more mood and thought to personification. My intention was to my photographs. My experiments have explore a deaper meaning of relationdeveloped through the investigation ships. of my own idea as well as through trial and error. As well as through manual I feel as if my understanding of relaedits by seeing it alter over the course tionship has deapened and I have exof editing and using different media. It plored a deaper interperatition of relahelped me to understand what works tionship within my project. well in the composition, such as, in the second photo-shoot, I thought the
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family and that she is the foundations AO4: Present a personal, informed and for my, and my brother’s success and meaningful re lives. I also used a scalping knife to cut sponse demonstrating critical under- out the surrounding branches found standing, realising intentions and, within the tree line, to suggest that she where appropriate, making connecis the one who holds us up and is our tions between visual, written, oral or anchor. I also encouperated some of other elements. our previous theme of covert and obscure to convey the sence of comparicreated two layers within the comson between the mother and the tree. position, I placed on top of a foam Describe your final outcomes in some board, the photograph of the double detail. exsposure image of the mother. Then underneath, I placed an image of the oringal photograph of her. Creating a was hoping to create a symbolisitc sence of comparison of the beauty of art piece that conveyed the thoughts spring influencing the blossoming of and emotion, felt by the daughter, to the tree and the beaiuty of the mother. the audience without having her presAlso helping to have a lighter and lov- ent in the composition. Overal I think, ing feel to the image. My final outcome the art-piece was effective and helped of my work was a symbolism art piece to convey the relationship between of the relationship between mother mother and daughter. I was concentratand daughter. My idea of the work, ing on the idea of doing ‘The love is in was that the daughter is using symthe eye of the behoulder.’ And I hope bolism for comparison of her moththat the viewer is able to find the love er’s beauty. Even though the daughter within the composition. isn’t present in the art-work, her influence is catered and is shown through the representation of the blossoming rgininally, I wanted to create an tree and her mother. The symbolism double expsosure image of my is, that the blossom shows the forever mother and an tree and then show the blooming and passionate love, a moth- relationship between these two noun’s. er holds for her children. The love that Through an layering technique of havwithholds all conditions and stages, ing the original image underneath and childhood, adolescent, adult, and still then pealing away at the top layer of blossoms and is phorsprous for ever. the image, thus revealing the original The tree trunk that runs in the centre underneath. However I realised this of the face, is used to symbolise that wasn’t pratical, as photographic paper she is the centre and the support of the dind’t create the same effect as a nor-
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mal piece of paper did, forcing me to abandon that train of thought. Then I conceived the idea of using foam board to enhacnce the effect of the layering within the image and give the photograph a 2D feel. I than encouperated the idea of layering, such as in the original thought process, the two images, the doubled exsposed and the original photograph, to create the same effect. However than I would also use a scalpoling nife to really convey across the sence of purpose and relationship within the composition.
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he most important artist in the evolution of the work is Carrie Mae Weems, as she has teached me the idea of creating a narrative within the composition to enhance the effect of relationship0 within the image. The work has reflected my interest as an artist, as I like how you can intemperate different ideas and meaning from a single word and how you can develop your ideas through the excess of different media sources, helping you on this journey. How you can create a hundred and one different enterpertation from this one word. How you can show artistic talent through the use of symbolism or metaphor and how you can really show your personality within your artwork.
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inal Piece progression.