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Reflection

The brief we were given for this semester was a brief that allowed us to really expand upon our skills as aspiring photographers. The aspect of creating a campaign that we could showcase through lens-based media has given me the freedom to dive deeper into what I want to show the world. At the beginning of the project, my focus was more on capturing myself in a way that I would like to be perceived by others. In addition to that, as I progressed through my project I began to find new methods that I could utilize to show self-portrayal. The initial idea of taking self portraits came to me as I began thinking about how we are often so busy with our lives and the outside world, that we often don’t think too much about ourselves. Self-Esteem is another thought that formed in my mind which plays an extremely big role in terms of self-portrayal and how we value and perceive ourselves and our identity. 

So I took this idea and thought to my self - “Why don’t I try something that will challenge me and help me learn about myself”. And  since we were executing this through photography and other lens-based media, it only made me more excited and curious to see what I could produce. 

Initially my plan was to only use my tripod to take photos of myself. But soon enough I realized that restricting my creativity won’t give me the chance to explore and discover new methods, techniques, and styles which would ultimately help me grow as a photographer. So as I started shooting, I didn’t let go of my initial idea of self-portraits but instead adapted it to give me more freedom to experiment and test different concepts as I advanced through the project. 

Through carrying out some research, I managed to stumble upon Vivian Maier who ended up being a significant influence for me and my campaign. This was because her idea of a self-portrait was so unique and different from others, that I needed to try it myself first-hand. Even though my concept photos which I took before discovering Maier weren’t quite similar to hers, it gave me the chance to see the differences in her work and comparing it with mine in terms of the whole idea of self portraits. The extensive use of reflections in her photos gave me the motivation to try her style of self-portraiture to understand her practice and to try give homage to her body of work which has been an influence for many street photographers.

Location-wise, at the start of the project I had a partially pre-determined idea as to where I would like to execute my shoots. At first I thought that I would be using nature and natural environments more but since I wanted to capture reflections in  urban/street settings, I decided that it would be best to make use of the opportunities I would get in Auckland CBD. The shoots were quite challenging as I had to carry my tripod and all my gear while I was exploring the city. However I didn’t let that stop me from getting creative and identifying the potential I had in terms of taking self-portraits.  To my surprise, some of the photos that I already had planned in advance didn’t turn out as great as the ones I took while exploring. This just goes to show how important it is to not limit your creativity especially when it comes to photography as you never know what you could capture or encounter. 

I wanted to make sure that when I’m selecting my final images, that I have a range to choose from. This is why I took several types of self portraits ranging from camera on the tripod, reflections and silhouettes. Scanning my surroundings is also another method I used and this actually helped me take one of my favourite photos from the shoot. I noticed a rectangular mirror underneath a building and all I did was look up to notice this. This goes to show how doing simple things such as looking in a different direction can result in a photo you would have never thought of taking. 

The output that I wanted to use for my photos was social media - Instagram in particular. This is because this is where the majority of my audience resides. Instagram is where I have gotten recognized the most for my work. I have been featured on photography pages and even collaborated with other like-minded creatives. This is what made me choose Instagram as the platform to showcase my work in, as this is where my identity as photographer began. In terms of actually posting the photos I took to Instagram (which I might), I want this campaign to be more of a foundation for me to try new things and to give me the courage to not be scared of failing or getting out of my comfort zone. This campaign has acted as a learning curve for me as the focus of the campaign was also directed towards myself - which I don’t show the world much of. I have called my campaign “Me, Myself & I” as that is what it essentially is. Just me expressing myself through the medium I love the most - photography. 

As a whole, I found this project really rewarding as it got me to analyze my own creative practice through a critical lens and allowed me to engage in what interests me. From the small-scale proof of concept photos and formative presentation to the final output, I have been able to understand my photographic work more thoroughly. I really value the liberty given to us in regards to our approach to the brief. Another thing I’m grateful for is having the freedom to be able to put more emphasis on experimentation and exploration rather than creating a perfect output. I think this is what I benefited from the most and I’m looking forward to see how I develop my practice further as I continue on my creative journey as an aspiring photographer.

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Instagram Mockups

I’m thinking of calling my campaign - “Me Myself & I”. 

I will further discuss on this in my reflection. 

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Next Step

Now it’s time to apply these photos to a social media output. I’m thinking of focusing on Instagram as I don’t want to overdo it by showcasing these photos of every single social media platform. My current idea is that I want to use my final photos in combination with high quality mockups to showcase that it’s a campaign based on Instagram.

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Final Photos

For my final photos, I have narrowed down my selection from 13 to 7. I have then gone ahead and edited and refined these photos further until I was happy with them.

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Editing + Selections

Over the past week and a half I have been going through all the photos I took during my shoot and flagged the photos that I think were the best in terms of representing the idea of self-portrayal and my overall concept. After looking at all the photos I captured, I found that I was more drawn to the reflection shots compared to ones that I posed for while using my tripod. So that is one discovery I made in terms of reflecting on my own photos - pun intended. Here are some of the edited photos that I’ve selected as potential final photos. My plan from here is to narrow the selection down even more and select the few that stand out amongst the others. 

I’m planning on playing around with this particular shot below more. This was one of my favourites, so I want to make sure I spend enough time in post-production to give justice to it. 

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Shoot Day!

Saturday 23rd April - Took advantage of the amazing weather and headed out to Auckland CBD to take photos. Here are some of the photos I captured. These are just exports of the RAW photos without any adjustments and I am yet to decide which ones I will be using for my final campaign. Overall it was really fun getting out and about Central Auckland on a bright sunny day with my camera. 

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Location/Composition Ideas (continued)

Here are some more examples I found that I can use as reference points. I’m planning to keep my final photos in colour unless I find that black and white suites my compositions more. I’ll keep that in mind and decide upon reviewing my photos once I know which ones I will be using. 

These photos are more recent or ”modern” examples of the kind of photos Vivian Maier had taken within in her work. Personally I thought it would be good for me to use these to gain a sense of the visual direction that I can test throughout my shoots.

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Location Ideas

I realised that location-wise, I’m not looking at any location in particular as I want to explore and find locations by experimenting. Since my concept revolves around discovering myself and isn’t restricted to a studio environment, I think it would be best to be open to selecting locations based on weather/potential of a good shot. But yes I do have an idea of where I want to shoot. 

Since I want to experiment taking self-portraits using reflections within a urban/street setting, I think I would find many opportunities in Auckland CBD. 

Similar to the concept photos I shot for the pitch presentation, I also would like to capture my self-portraits within the natural NZ environment (basically anywhere outdoors - parks/mountains/beaches)

I follow a photographer by the name of James Stonley (@jstonley) on Instagram and remembered that he has quite a lot of photos depicting the ideas I have for my own shoots. Here are some examples for reference.

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Project Timeline

Week 6 (Today)

- Write up my timeline on my blog to get an idea what I’ll be doing each week leading up to summative.

- Finding potential locations I can shoot my self portraits 

Week 7  

- Plan where, when and how I will execute my potential shoots

Semester Break 

- Going to use this time to shoot as much as I can

- Shoot, Edit, Analyse, Reflect

Week 8

- Will look at if I was successful at applying the learnings I gathered from the photographic practitioner I researched and was able to incorporate something I learnt from them into my own work (for the shoots that I have done up till this point)

- Plan more shoots if needed 

Week 9

- Edit/Analyse any new photos I have taken

- Get feedback

- Make adjustments based on feedback (re-shoot, change editing style, make technical or practical changes to my shooting style)

Week 10

- Hopefully by now I will have an idea of which images I would like to use for my final campaign

- Prepare presentation

- Post/Print the photos 

Week 11

- Make any final changes if needed

- Have the blog updated with my process, reflections, work in progress

- Complete presentation 

- Submit work

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Week 5 Pitch Presentation

My presentation this morning went pretty well. With the feedback I got I will be incorporating Vivian Maier’s style into my future photos and combine it with my underlying concept for a more stronger depiction of self-portraiture.

My next steps will be to formulate possible locations, methods and styles that I would like to incorporate in my photos and slowly progress towards developing my series. Looking at other people’s presentations and also asking critical questions to my peers helped me understand their own approach to their campaign which also gave me an idea of what I can include in mine.

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Came across this video on Instagram and found it extremely relevant to my concept, thought it would be fun to share. Video by Tristan Zhou @trystane

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I was surprised to find an offical account of Vivian Maier on Instagram. The page is promoting her work and legacy and is actively posting her work. @vivianmaierarchive

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There is section specifically dedicated to books about Vivian Maier published by various people on Vivian Maier’s website. I found it really cool.

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Critique Resources

A few resources I used to form my critique. I was fortunate to find many informative sites and sources that helped me understand Vivian Maier as a person and her work.

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/maier-vivian/

https://hyperallergic.com/99620/self-portraits-in-a-complex-mirror-the-photographs-of-vivian-maier/

https://bluemooncameracodex.com/inspiration/2018/2/9/vivian-maiers-1950s-self-portraiture-and-the-invisibility-of-the-unmarried-woman

https://huxleyparlour.com/critical-texts/vivian-maier-and-the-psychology-of-the-mirrored-image/

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Critique - Vivian Maier’s Self Portraits

While looking for a self-portrait campaign/series of photographs, I stumbled upon Vivian Maier who was an American street photographer born in New York City. For most of her career, she worked as a nanny and in her spare time would explore and photograph urban locations in a monochromatic documentary style. She also slowly adapted to coloured photographs later on as her career progressed. Maier’s self-portraits were seen as some of her strongest works and she had taken a number of photographs overall (100,000 photos worldwide!) which gave the world a view of her identity which was otherwise unknown. What personally drew to me to her photos was her whole idea of a self-portrait. She has utilised reflections in her body of work to a great extent. From glass windows, mirrors, shadows, silhouettes, or any surface that would produce even the slightest reflection. This gave me ideas of what I could include in my own photos as I didn’t consider the use of reflections to begin with. Till now, I have only been thinking about shooting myself by using a tripod, but overlooked the possibility of taking self-portraits while the camera was still physically in my hands. So taking my original concept and trying to find ways I can utilise reflections will be more favourable for me while I go through the shooting process as I will now have a much broader view of the different opportunities that I can discover. This made me realise how looking at other photographer's work and examining their methods can summon new ideas and bring in a different point of view which can then be applied to my own work. Another similarity I found while looking through Maier’s work and analysing my own work and practice concurrently, was the idea of how Maier was revealing her true self through her self-portraits while taking us on a journey of self-discovery.

Another way to describe it could be - a creative exploration without a clear destination of where she was headed. This is very similar to what I am currently experiencing as a young photographer in terms of discovering myself as a creative practitioner. After doing a bit more research of the contextual implications of Maier’s self-portraits, I discovered that some of her self-portraits were in fact emphasising on gender expectations for women in the 1950’s. For example, women with no children or no higher education. Her taking self-portraits was a way of expressing her individualism and how she felt invisible in society, we can correlate this with what we see in her photos as she’s usually by herself which symbolises isolation. Of course, all self-portraits are to be interpreted differently, but it’s interesting to see how the viewers or the photographer themselves (in this case Maier) were understanding her work. Maier’s portrayal of her day-to-day experiences depicted through her self-portraits and the extensive impression it received is inspiring and makes me give more thought to the storytelling aspect of shooting self-portraits or any type of photo for that matter. Both the black and white and coloured photographs that Maier has taken strongly looks at the notion of self-recognition and what we might perceive as our ideal self in our own mind or even in the chaos of reality. The idea of visually depicting the presence of her absence really makes you think about Maier’s perception of herself through her lens. By examining her work thoroughly, I was able to identify the attention to detail in her compositions and her eye for detail. The introduction of colour in her work while transitioning from monochromatic presented a great array of photos that captured the raw essence of her adventures.

Of course, back then there was liitle to no digital process or post-production in photography, so looking at the raw photos makes them a bit more unique and gives them that feeling of human connection. I am glad I came across Vivian Maier and her work, as even though the photography that I’ve done and the photography she has practised don’t align to a full extent, there are enough similarities that I can draw from her work to utilise in my own practice. Analysing her work and background really gave me the necessary knowledge to understand the philosophy behind her self-portraits and the deeper meaning behind them. I am looking forward to see how I can implement some of the things I learnt from reading about Maier while going on shoots and personalising my series of photos/campaign to address what I want to showcase to the viewer. I think Vivian Maier is a great inspiration to all photographers with they way she has brought to light the significance of self-portraits and their psychological relations with self-depiction and how we see, or want the world to see ourselves. By writing this critique, I have learnt how there are a range of different ways I can approach developing a photographic campaign. I have garnered sufficient information on Vivian Maier and will continue to research and actively apply my learnings as I progress towards producing self-portrait images.

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Photographic Series - Vivian Maier - Self Portraits (Colour)

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Photographic Series - Vivian Maier - Self Portraits (Black & White)