Last Seen Blogs
amabuki
@raiseasuilen
azranox
The Mind of Azra
fancypantshoodlum
Fancypants Hoodlum
goodeplumbing
Goode Plumbing Blog
theymakemesoft
Kpop Reactions, Etc
Text
Final Evaluation & Reflection
The aim of this project for me was to show how a certain scene can change it’s mood or meaning by depicting it within a new environment. Being more specific, I wanted to show an intimate moment being more meaningful than a pornographic scene and for it to show its art and see how different audiences would perceive the images by changing their environments. For this instance I chose to use projections of different environments to show more creativity and to show a different way of presenting different environments, rather than placing the models in different locations.
Initially, when looking for my starting ideas, I knew I wanted to work on some form of intimacy as I believe intimate moments between two people are special and sacred which I think is a beautiful energy to shoot. I gathered ideas from Pinterest and created three mood boards with three initial themes. Intimacy, Projections and Blossom. Blossom explored the art of portraiture with flowers and it’s simplistic context yet with substantial beauty. Projections explored the art of light and colour amongst people. And Intimacy explored the art between the kinetic energy between two people. Eventually I eliminated one of those ideas being Blossom and decided to combine Projections and Intimacy which I then titled Projections of Intimacy. I did this as I felt it would give me a stronger context, a unique title and a lot more to work with overall.
I then researched in to carefully selected artists then wrote my proposal. My main influence for this whole project was Nan Goldin. Her artistic yet borderline erotic style of photography in her book The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency really inspired me as I could see how they were considered more as art than a pornographic photoshoot. After being inspired, I knew I had to come up with a plan so I could start creating. I then chose an exhibition that I wanted to go to that I thought would compliment the grittiness of work that I was try to create. The exhibition was at the Barbican Centre and was called Another Kind of Life, this featured a load of work done by a range of photographers. This gave me some inspiration as to thinking ahead and how I was planning to present my work. And this was either going to be simplistic and minimal or extremely gritty and bold. I carried on with my work and decided to start planning my shoots and testing out what I initially wanted to do. These were successful yet I had a few complications which was inevitable. Firstly a technical problem was with the projector that wouldn’t work with certain computers so that became a tedious task of finding one where it did work. And another hurdle throughout my work was figuring out whether or not it would have to be censored or not without having the final images in front of us. I had planned what they would initially look like which made others question if it would have to be the case or not. But eventually we decided not to censor my work and when we saw the final photos we knew we had made the right choice.
With my final shoot and final photos, I’m extremely happy with how they came out as it’s exactly how I planned for them to be. There was an element of relief when I saw the final photo after being developed as I was frightened that I had messed them up. Overall the shoot went really well; my models worked really well in front of the camera and were genuinely comfortable in front of each other luckily because they were together. I was laid back and and had music on so no one felt on edge or uncomfortable because of the whole nature of the shoot. I took it to consideration what happened with the test shoot before with the Rolliflex and improved with my final photos. There was still the one or two photos which were blurred slightly but nothing substantial like the test shoot before. I also learned what projections I liked best when doing the shoot before so for this shoot I knew specifically which projections worked best and which didn’t work so well due to colours, tones and brightness. If I were to do this shoot again I would use another roll of film to create more photos just to have more opportunities to create my best photos.
After being inspired by the exhibition, I have planned for my photos to be presented simplistically as I feel that if my photos were presented in a bolder way, it would distract people from the photos and it would all be too loud and noisy as such. I have chosen to have nine final photos all sized 6x6 all formalised within a grid. I think this will be aesthetically pleasing to the eye and still minimal, which I believe will draw the audience in to my work without being too bold and outgoing. If I could choose to have my own lighting set up within the exhibition, I would have something that would compliment my work, I would have a light shone directly on to my work to avoid flashback off the glossy finish of the photos. It would also be dimly lit room with just light focused on my work with a cold toned white light.
One of my high points of this project has to be actually shooting my final body of work; getting to work with models who are borderline nude is something I’ve hardly done before and helped me build my social awareness when shooting, for example how to make the models feel comfortable. I also loved using the 6x6 Rolliflex camera, before this year of work I had never worked with medium format cameras and I felt using this camera for my final piece showed how much to people I want to get better at using film. I also love how the photos are square and not rectangular.
A low point of this project has to be trying to find models who would agree and feel comfortable with doing this shoot. I really struggled to find models who would re create my vision, which I completely understood as it’s a very vulnerable position to be in. Fortunately I found the best models for the job and couldn't have been happier with outcome.
If I could do this whole FMP again, I would create a more realistic plan to my style of work. I created a goal of an amount of work to be done by a certain time which just wasn’t suited to my work pace. This made me feel as though I had to force my imagination to work rather than just letting all the creativity flow out of me.
0 notes
Text
Test Shoot 2 Evaluation
For this shoot I wanted to see how the projections would work being shone upon a body and within the studio. I got pictures that I took from different environments that I thought could implicate different moods and set different scenes without changing the set up and the model. I wanted to create a variety of poses and shapes of the model so I could understand what would be best for the final shoot. I also used a Rollifex 6x6 MF camera, this was because I wanted to create more originality to the photos as while I was researching in to doing projections as one of my initial ideas, I realised that a lot of people had done this before. So by using film and a 6x6 frame I thought it would make the photos stand out more.
The photographer which inspired me to experiment more with my work for this shoot was Micheal David Adams. He has worked with projection, colour and even underwater. He inspired my work to be as creative and bold as possible whilst still being original. The colour featured in to his work gives of such vibrancy whilst showing nothing but confidence, this is what I wanted to reflect in my work.
Doing the actual shoot was a lot of fun, using the projections really added another element of excitement to the photos and the shoot itself. It was also good that my confidence grew whilst using the Rolliflex. Film often tends to scare me as it’s similar to a gamble as you cannot see the images straight away. So if you were to mess up the photos by chance, you wouldn't know until after the development process. But for the photos to come out the way they did gave me confidence that I did something right which gave me the confidence to decide to go with film for my final shoot.
When doing the shoot again for the final time, I plan on focusing on improving the errors I made throughout this shoot. One error I made that needs to be worked upon is that because of the low shutter speed because of the darkness of the shoot and how much light needs to be let in through the lens, I need to remember to have a steady hand or to use a tripod. This showed throughout the photos through some of them being blurred slightly from slight movement. This will be remembered for the next shoot therefore my photos will become ever stronger.
0 notes
Text
Test Shoot 1 Evaluation
For this shoot I wanted to do a shoot digitally as I have planned to do my other test shoot on a medium format camera on film. I wanted to compare the different results to understand the effects each camera made to the pictures. I used my models who happened to be in a relationship to capture their intimate moments, some posed and other photos as a more documentary type shoot. I decided to do this shoot on location as I was also planning to do the other test shoot in the studio to see which I would prefer for the final shoot.
The artist which inspired my shoot for this was Nan Goldin and her photo book The Ballad of Sexual Dependancy. I wanted to create quite a gritty couple of photos; portraying quite raw emotions like Goldin did with her photos.
Overall, the shoot went as well as it could. The model’s did incredible and basically forgot that I was there, which is what I wanted. I had music playing so they weren't feeling awkward with me standing there and they were comfortable and that also portrayed through the photos as well. They were natural and not forced, also during post-production on Lightroom I decided to create a slightly colder and grittier effect to them just so they were more like Nan Goldin’s.
Unfortunately, I had planned for this shoot to also have use of the projector and it wasn't working properly during the shoot because of a fully connection between the projector and the mac. Because of this we just had to work on the shoot without the original plan.
Although my shoot didn't go to plan, I was still happy with the outcome of the photos, yet I think I will be shooting on film for my final shoot as I believe it adds more character to the photo and also shows more skill. In my next shoot I will make sure the projector works properly this time and also repeat the minimal direction given to the models, as that’s what worked best.
0 notes
Text
Reflection on Survey
This survey helped me gather information of my audience and their opinions of the topic i’ve decided to focus on. It told me that the main demographic is people aged 18-25 and are 80% female. Everyones interests were creative subjects, so this is a positive response for a photography/art survey. When showing the photo of Nan Goldin’s self portrait of her having her intimate moment, a lot of people just responded that their first thought was ‘sex and passion’. Which tells me that my audience won't read in to the context first and visualise a situation, they will just instantly respond to what they can see plain and simple. 70% of people saw the work as art but some people saw it as pornographic which is not what I want my work to portray at all so I'm hoping that the use of projections makes people see it as artistic not pornographic. There was a split vote on whether the photo of Nan Goldin should be censored or not so maybe making my photos less bold might mean I wouldn't have to censor them. Yet somehow make them gritty and raw as thats was people seemed to have preferred.
0 notes
Text
Public Survey
I did a short survey to gather an idea of my audience and their opinions of my style of genre for this project and how it impacts on my work. These were the results:
0 notes
Text
Concept
Originally I looked in to doing ‘projections’ as it’s own concept but I decided to combine this idea with another initial idea of mine, that being ‘intimacy’. I decided that combining the two ideas would help me create a stronger and more fulfilled project. After gathering my initial ideas, I created mood boards on Pinterest. I found different styles and interpretations of work under the keywords projections and intimacy that inspired me to gather my own ideas and create my own unique way of creating this style of work. I then researched in to an artist for each initial idea which helped me gather my concept together. My concept is to show how a colour or scene projected on to another scene can change the mood and emotion reflected through the original scene which is being projected over. This is to show how colour and certain environments can effect an individuals moment and mood. (e.g) When the sun is shining and there is blue skies, a common emotion is happy. I want to translate this through my work.
0 notes
Text
BLOSSOM: Artist Research - Jason Evans 2.1
Reference: https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/mbeypy/we-are-stardust-we-are-golden-weve-got-to-get-ourselves-back-to-the-garden
Jason Evans was born in 1968 and is a Welsh photographer and lecturer. He is best known for his photo series ‘Strictly’. For this Evans’ worked with Simon Foxton who is a stylist and had a bunch of young black men to model for him on a regular street and created the unique series of photos which were staged like editorial work yet had the subliminal feel of documentary to them.
Evans had a floral fantasy which was drastically different to ‘Strictly’. Whilst working with I-D magazine his new photo series got posted on to their website on the 21st July 2016 featuring ten of ‘fashions brightest new faces’. The only other text featured on the post said:
“We are stardust, we are golden, we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden”
Out of the series I chose my favourite photo which is the one above. I really appreciate the colours and the vibrancy that is featured within the photo; giving the photo a different dynamic which is some what for me a mood changer. The textures through layering in this photo really creates a further dimension and suggests to me that you could possibly wear 3D glasses and it would pop out even further. The metallic make up on the model also is a great feature for this photo; the way the light bounces off of it really makes it shine and reflect its small metallic particles, this just really compliments the picture as a whole.
Key parts of this photo that stick out to me that should be addressed is firstly her eye. There is only one eye visible in this photo, focusing all our attention to the centre of the photo where this eye is placed. It’s also highlighted by the surrounding metallic make up and full eyebrows which are both framing her eye. Another key part is the flowers that are located on the bottom left of the photo, as these are in full focus and opacity whereas every other flower is either layered upon or out of focus.
Recreating it myself, I wouldn’t change anything about the photo. I would just continue of the series and create a range of photos with different colours, models and flowers (which is what Evans’ has already done).
‘BLOSSOM’ is one of my initial ideas. This features bright, colourful and pretty/ fantasy photography. I chose this as one of my initial ideas as I think it’s fun and would have a really great outcome. I chose Jason Evans and this piece of work to explain what style of work I would create if I was to choose this idea.
0 notes
Text
PROJECTIONS: Artist Research - Micheal David Adams 2.1
Reference:
http://michaeldavidadams.com/portfolio/breath-from-another/
Micheal David Adams is a fashion/editorial photographer living in New York. He’s worked for likes of Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and more. His work is of an extreme high quality and very unique, everyone has most definitely seen a piece of his work and not known who’d have created it.
This photo I’ve chosen is from a small series called ‘Breath from Another’ and was featured in an international version of Glamour Magazine for the Love and Sex part that you find in a lot of female glossy magazines. These pictures were shot underwater; something Adams’ specialises his photography in. A quote found on this series by Adams’ himself was:
“Exploring a world where the face of life is shared between two souls”
The warming colours and weightlessness of this image is definitely what made this photo stick out to me. I love how it’s shot underwater and how the water flowing just elevates the kinetic energy and connection between both the models. The colours projected on to them through the water gives such a calming mood to the photo and really helps set the scene. It’s also quite an intimate photo which then correlates to my other initial idea of Intimacy; the title ‘Breath from Another’ also really adds to this point.
Key parts of this photo to me is firstly the colour and tone of the photo, it’s warm, loving and cosy, perfect for the Love and Sex part of a magazine! The way he’s holding her is also another key part to me. It’s as if he’s keeping her close to keep her safe through the water, which is romantic and also adds more emotion the photo. Also the water ripples and edited smoke really add to the texture of the photo and gives more layers to this 2D piece of art, adding energy and a strong flow throughout.
I would love to be able to recreate this photo exactly the way as Adams’ has created it, yet I don’t think I would have the facilities to do underwater shooting nor a pair of models who would do this well underwater. I would love to recreate this image on dry land with the same colours and energy represented in this photo.
I chose ‘PROJECTIONS’ as one of my initial ideas as I’ve previously played around with projections in my photography and absolutely adored the outcome so, I wanted to venture further in to trying new things. I chose Adams to research and this photo for this idea as it’s just a spectacular image, the colours and connection is just unbeatable in my eyes.
0 notes
Text
Project Proposal 1.1, 1.2
Over the past 12 units, I have learnt, developed, improved and succeeded. Through attempting to recreate famous photos in Make Me Your Icon, to exploring the uses of the dark room and creating cyanotypes and learning all about the chemicals involved. Experiencing all the elements of photography I hadn’t yet had the chance to try before and then also developing skills in elements that I had already worked upon. After growing in confidence after the first eight units; for my FMP, I ventured out in to London and decided to shoot with the public after exploring in to the human condition. I achieved a distinction from my last FMP and that gave me a massive confidence boost and has now lead me on to apply to study a degree in photography and I got given an unconditional offer, based off my portfolio which I had collected over the past two years which included the majority of the work done through these units, plus other work.
The concept I’ve decided on for my FMP this year is combining two of my initial ideas as I believed that they would work well together and would also create a stronger piece of work which allows me to explore more areas and experiment a wider range of techniques. The title for my FMP is Projections of Intimacy and this explores the art of intimacy and I’m trying to replicate the hidden kinetic-like context of the intimacy visually through using a projector and projecting different art, photos and colours on their bodies during their intimate moments to set a mood. This is so the audience can get a deeper understanding of the context and can try to imagine what those deep intimate moments feel like if they haven’t experienced them before. I was inspired by Nan Goldin and her self portrait of an intimate moment between her and a man in New York. I loved the grungy rustic look of the photo and the edginess of it, so ideally I would like to shoot these photos on location, but I will test shoot in the studio as well to see what the different finishes products would look like. Her book The Ballad of Sexual Depenendancy really explores the theme I want to venture in to without it being classed as pornography. I will do this my exploring her techniques and style further to then produce parts of it through my work. I then was also inspired by Michael David Adams who did a shoot with Glamour magazine where he shot a photo of two models having an intimate moment together underwater with a burnt orange coloured projection over them. I would love to do an underwater shoot but sadly I don’t have the money nor equipment for that. Yet I will most definitely be using the idea of projections, I’ve previously worked with using a projector within photography so I’ve also got some knowledge behind this that I could further my understanding on. So, the equipment I plan to be using will be a DSLR, SLR, projector, flash soft boxes and gels (colour filters).
My initial plan to help me evaluate my work and to be able to tell quickly what I have and haven’t done is look at the grade requirements and brief and to write up my own list of things I think I need to do throughout my work so I can check them off once done. Then every time I tick something off my list; write a short evaluation which is a paragraph explaining how the process went. This way when I’m at the end of my FMP and I’ve got to write my overall evaluation, I can look at my daily evaluation to see how each process went and then this allows me to focus more on the actual content and evaluation what I would change and comparing it to artists’ work.
Bibliograph
Nan Goldin: (2012) The Ballad of Sexual Dependency Aperture
Tilo Gockel (2014) Creative flash photography: Great lighting with small flashes Rocky Nook
Alona Pardo (2018) Another Kind of Life: Photography on the margins Prestel
David Lynch (2018) Nudes Fondation Cartier
0 notes
Text
Mood Boards: Three Initial Ideas
BLOSSOM - Art involving flowers
PROJECTION - Lighting with projections
INTIMACY - Up close and personal
0 notes