abygailsantillan2023

[abygailsantillan2023]

TASK 1

The predominant genre of my photography work is more fashion photography based either with models posing, myself or my genuine lifestyle with people around me. I feel that my overall mood/vibe gives a grungier/edgier vibe as that’s what my personal style revolves around. The main contexts of my work mostly include art that provides a deeper meaning within the photos or simply contextual with clothing I’ve made or the people in my community. 

The type of platform I would want to showcase my work would be either fashion or editorial photography. My past work does definitely reflect the path I want to go into contextually as some shoots are either staged or not staged so I’ve been exposed to what it’s like working with models etc but I would love to push myself further and create work at my best. 

My name is Abby Santillan. I am an aspiring fashion photographer, conceptual and lifestyle work, producing high end content for fashion brands or magazines. My work provides a grungier, subversive style which also reflects my own personal style as an individual. 

[abygailsantillan2023]

FINAL MANIPULATION SERIES

"The Fashion Industry's representation of beauty"

For my 1st image, I wanted to show beauty standards through her reflection and how sometimes we feel drowned through looking at someone else’s perspective of us. I did this by removing her reflection and adding a different one tied with ribbons and her laying on a bed of pins to make the image more uncanny to fit my concept. 

For my 2nd image, I wanted to represent how this fashion/media industry can always be watching us. For all my images, I wanted to have the viewer feel a certain type of way and actually interpret my images as somewhat eerie and how flawed this industry can be sometimes. I was originally going to do a blue and red concept, but as I kept manipulating my images, I felt that this bright red suited the images more and kind of tied them all together because of this one repeated color.

For my 3rd image. I wanted to portray the girl in somewhat of a mirror-like photo to represent garments we see in a window at a shop and is what I feel models sometimes go through. We see them as inanimate objects just for their faces or for them to wear clothes. I wanted to represent the girl as a garment we see on a hanger but again have that eerie feeling which I put ribbons as her tears to make sure it ties into my other images.

[abygailsantillan2023]

Christopher Gilbert - PHOTOGRAPHER RESEARCH

Christopher Gilbert is a photographer based in Belgium and is a self-taught photographer. "Christopher truly believes that small details can make a huge different by the way he can manipulate liquids like paint and water."

Gilbert's portfolio of work has definitely given me insight on how sometimes simplicity can still say a lot especially with manipulations. Personally, I feel like I can go overboard and add many objects and unnecessary filters to my manipulations making it look quite fake but with most of Gilbert's work, it's quite seamless and very detail orientated which I strive to do in my final manipulations.

[abygailsantillan2023]

initial manipulations

For my initial manipulations, I really wanted to focus on the viewer's interpretation and find simple ways to incorporate my concept of how beauty standards/social media in fashion can be mentally draining.

[abygailsantillan2023]

Tim Walker - PHOTOGRAPHER RESEARCH

Tim Walker became a well-known photographer for his imaginative photographs inspired by his love of fairy tales. Since then, he has been known for his photographs with Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, LOVE and i-d. I was definitely influenced by Walker as he's known as a fashion photographer and that was the main points of my concept which is fashion photography.

I was particularly inspired by his W magazine shoot for Balenciaga and Charles Jeffrey's Loverboy lookbook names 'The healing' 2020. His fashion photography shoots are usually captured in a white studio and I felt that this idea is very editorial and this was something I wanted to try out as I haven't done it before. I felt that photographing models in a white studio would also be a good idea for fashion photography as it focuses on the model and it would manipulate really well.

[abygailsantillan2023]

Lara Zankoul - PHOTOGRAPHER RESEARCH

Lara Zankoul is an artist based in Beirut, Lebanon. Her work captures everyday human behavior and issues that occur within society through photographic media. Her signature work not only stands out in its conceptual identity, but also in its timelessness. I particularly like Zankoul’s work as it’s quite simple yet captures the form and deeper meaning in her photographs.

Zankoul’s photography from 2020-2022 has been one of my main inspirations based on aesthetics. I think it was quite captivating seeing this blue and red color palette. It’s striking as they’re both primary colors but suit each other well. I wanted to somehow incorporate this palette into my final manipulations as I not only wanted to portray a concept in my manipulations but have an overall aesthetic for my photographs to tie well with each other (making it a series)

[abygailsantillan2023]

CONCEPT RESEARCH

BEAUTY STANDARDS IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY

“But beauty is not in the eye of the beholder; although it is something in the mind of the beauty. It is a real thing, based on visible qualities of line, forn, light, proportion and grace.” (Colacello, 1997)

It’s very hard to describe physical beauty as we all have different perceptions on what ‘beauty standards’ truly are. In each time period and society, there have always been forms of appearances that are socially to be more appealing than anything else. The norms of fashion and the industry’s ideas have mainly been influenced by Western societies’ point of perspective. 

The word ‘beauty’ is mainly associated with how beautiful a woman is through femininity, clothing and cosmetic products. I felt that I wanted to focus more on female ideals and their effects on women hence why I decided to use female models. 

This idea of beauty has always been around but was mostly depicted in art before photography was invented. Beauty in art’s main purpose was to be seen and admired hence these beauty standards became popular. And as Scruton(2009:149) argues, giving an example with Titian’s Venus of Urbino, the nude depicts the body as an object of desire and the woman starts to equate the body as an object herself. 

Since then, these unrealistic beauty standards have become more toxic idealized in this industry. Editorial and advertising content relying heavily on Photoshop and creating a delusion about how a female body looks could be obvious evidence in itself.

[abygailsantillan2023]

contact sheets - 1st photoshoot

[abygailsantillan2023]

PLANNING FIRST PHOTOSHOOT

From brainstorming concepts and looking at initial aesthetics on pinterest, I wanted to go with the concept of beauty standards in the fashion industry and how that can affect mental health. I knew I wanted to do this in a subtle way to make the viewer think instead of creating obvious manipulations.

From doing the exercise in class of listing shots, locations and equipment needed, I decided I needed to plan thoroughly on what shots I needed to be organized as I wanted to use models.

I decided to make my own shots list from the example we were given.

My friend Jasmin from the other photography class decided to do this together as she had her own mini studio at her house. That way we could also help each other with lighting, props and directing.

My friends Erika and Aska were kind enough to say yes to be our models and we decided to plan out more photoshoots with them in the future and also make sure to get them lunch or compensate them for their time.

After this first photoshoot, Jasmin and I made sure to take our own photos but also with the photos we took, we made sure to tell each other which ones we're gonna use which made it fair and for our manipulations to not be the same.

[abygailsantillan2023]

concepts pinterest board

[abygailsantillan2023]

Concept Ideas - (The Manipulated image 2)

For this assignment, I knew that I wanted to do something with fashion or something with editorial shots. I felt that this would've been the most appropriate as I'm already familiar with fashion photoshoots and could integrate that knowledge into this one.

[abygailsantillan2023]

FINAL MANIPULATION

My manipulated image contains a fantastical reality to portray geometrical lines and illusion. 

Throughout this semester learning and researching about photograph manipulation has been a key part for me to create my final image. The research that I have conducted from the past 6 weeks, I’ve learnt that it was crucial for me to make something that would have an appropriate context and to not exploit anyone or anything. 

Photograph manipulations have been around since the 1800’s for the positive and negative. Having readings and background knowledge helped me differentiate from what I could manipulate and what I shouldn’t manipulate. This is why I made a crucial decision of taking inspiration from fantastical reality and starting from there. I felt that doing this with more of an enjoyable mindset rather than wanting to portray truth or context helped me create a manipulation that wouldn’t hurt anyone. 

I first wanted to create a fantasy/optical illusion with a double rainbow in the background to create a subject. I then decided to place the silhouette of a man appearing to walk on the window. I felt that this was quite interesting as you would obviously know this couldn’t be real but still had the imagination of being true. I also made a strategic placement of the man to sort of mirror the building line to create this diagonal line to draw the viewer’s eye. I felt that it was not only important to create these lines to add interest but also for it to look not too fake. Adding the paper overlay also helped this fantasy look as it was quite plain without it and adding different overlays and shadows to create texture within this manipulation. Finally to finish my manipulation, I wanted to keep this photograph simple and not add anything too extravagant so adding a black and white square around the man not only added to the geometric shape to the original photo but helped add variation between colors. 

I felt that I learnt a lot through research and inspiration. I created a manipulation that not only emphasized it’s geometrical context and illusion but also made a manipulation that is fun and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer.

[abygailsantillan2023]

developments of manipulation

I decided to develop the man on the window because I felt that I could do a lot with the geometry aspect

experiments with buildings

lines

transparency

I still wanted to keep this manipulation pretty simple and that's why I didn't add much to my photograph. I felt that if I added too much, one element would overpower the other and I didn't want it to take away from the geometrical aspect of this manipulation.

[abygailsantillan2023]

INITIAL MANIPULATION

After getting feedback from David, I felt that this silhouette on a building with rainbows was my strongest manipulation. The geometric lines worked quite well with how the silhouette was working and I felt that it was mysterious yet fantasy-like. I definitely want to add more to this manipulation to really emphasize the lines and shapes used in this image or develop this geometric pattern into more manipulation trials

other manipulation trials

[abygailsantillan2023]

PHOTOGRAPHY MANIPULATION INSPIRATION

The inspiration I have taken from pinterest are more fantasy scenes as I feel that when I manipulate photos, I'm more interested in creating images that look unreal but could still be real some way.

[abygailsantillan2023]

PICTURES OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN ARTICLE

Devices came into limited circulation in late 2000, but became globally available in early 2002

300 million photos uploaded to Facebook (Trinko 2012)

Instagram uploads around 70 million per day

Snapchat around 760 million images per day according to Morrison (2015)

Lots of phone filters can recreate retro, filmstock appearances

Light leaks, lens artifacts became filters on instagram

Rise of faux-vintage photography creates nostalgia for the present

Many instagram and hipstamatic photos won’t be genuine. 

Generalized aura of pastness in these real memories

Boundaries between present and past isn't good

Creating an image of the present that looks as if it is the past in order to provide satisfaction in the present 

‘Retro’ digital photography represents a therapeutic response to an existential crisis in postmodernism

I feel that this article has opened up my eyes a bit more around filters and effects that capture retro themes like light leaks, scratches etc. It was quite interesting as reading about other articles and how hard it was to let alone just create a photograph, in this day and age we’re somehow romanticizing what it was like to be in the past and have vintage looking photos. 

Sometimes in our modern lives, we don't realize that retro-fication of digital images have effects on how the future will see these photos and how it won't be genuine anymore since phones and technology are so advanced that photography can get lost in the excitement of manipulation.

[abygailsantillan2023]

WEEK 3 WORKSHOP

In this week's workshop, we learnt about pasting objects into a different background and making sure to match up perspectives. Using two parallel lines to create a horizon line is a good way to make sure the photoshopped image looks perspectively true.

We also learnt about some new tools like the gradient map which was about the darkest and lightest points of an image.

I feel that this tutorial was quite useful in terms of creating a realistic photoshopped image. I also made sure to take notes to not forget what i've learnt.