Naming my images

When thinking of names for my images I wanted to create something that could go with my theme of representation, for this is decided to go with hashtags, because of the growing trend of social media for young people i thought using these as titles went with my theme well. 

Final image '#Nomakeupmondays?

Within this image I like the position of the models and  alter egos head as well as the lighting that shines on the alter ego. 

Final image #wegonnaparyhard?

With this image I wanted to focus on the reflection of the image into the mirror. What i most liked is how I placed both the model and the alter ego into positions that suited each other and looked professional.

Final image #turndownforwhat?

Even though I liked when the alter ego and model looked like they were responding to each other, with this image i like the fact that they two were back to back making it look like they are a reflection of each other.



An aspect that did not appeal to ma about this image is the brightness and contrast with this image. Although I played around with these features in photoshop, I was still not happy with he end result.

Final image #LMFAO

Again i like how I tied the setting of this image to show how representation and identity are shown through objects. A dislike was how the mask pinned on the wall was in the middle of the frame making a viewers
attention go straight onto that detail instead of the main aspect of the image.

Final image #Degreemadness?

With this image I liked how I placed the alter ego, looking away fro the model and what she is doing, showing disapproval. The alter ego looking down at her phone i think gives off my main theme of really wanting to do something else. I placed the shot in a bedroom with pink objects around the room, which i thought showed the representation of how society thinks girls are.

A dislike I came across was maybe I could of made the alter ego and model connect a little more in this shot.

Final Image #healthylifestyle?

I chose this edit to be my final image of 'I do eat healthy, I do' i liked the fact that the girls are both looking at each other perfectly the way I wanted this image to come out. This create a personal feel between the two showing more of a relationship then a overlooking alter ego. With this first edit i decided that I wanted the alter ego and the model herself to be connect inmost if not all my final images.

Some dislikes I had with this picture is the background the two are placed in, because the three fridges are out of the centar of the frame it is distraction and create an unprofessional look within the photo.

Inspirational images and Punctum

 

 When going through all my research of different photographers I came across a few images that inspired me the most to help sculpt what my final images will look like. Each photo below has a element that has inspired me to use or do techniques smilier.

This image by Andy Warhol shows a Punctum, a deeper meaning then the photo first gives off. Here he is dressed up in drag but does not try and cover up his manly features. Make up is worn but no wig is shown. Which I think he is trying to reflect how your 'alter ego' dose not always change or over come who you really are.

Editing in photoshop

To create this alter ego effect within my images I tried to cut an image out and place it on top of another background. I tried a few from the images I have taken myself but a difficultly I came across was cutting out the image without deleting and missing out some of the models features. 

CR4 Benger,Ways of seeing chapter 1

'The way we see things is effected by what we know or what we believe' 

This quote by Benger was one in an early part of his readings and I thought fit in with the pathway I am going down with my final essay images. When talking and thinking about society, many of us know that we are captured in this bubble of 'Perfect' that we now a days see as normal. We also know that we can easily get out of this bubble if we just turn away from what we should be doing and start to do things we want to do. With my picture I would like capture this, allowing viewers to look at my images and see it as opportunity to get out of soceitys eye.

CR3 Clarke_The photograph

When looking into and reading this reading Clarke talks a lot about the meaning of an image relating back to Stadium and Punchum when looking at the small detail that give more information of the underlying meaning.

'Far from being a 'mirror', the photograph is one of the most complex and most problematic forms of representation. Its ordinariness belies its ambivalence and implicit difficulty as a means of representation.' 

Here Clarke talks about representation in photographs and how complex they are to a viewer. When seeing this quote it made me think of how I want viewers to see my representation of young women.

'Look at a second Diane Arbus image, A Family on their Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, New York (1969) [8]. On the surface this is an image of an average New York suburban middle-class American family, but once again, the more we look at it the more its meaning changes, until it emerges not just as a definitive Arbus image, but as an almost iconic statement on the nature of suburban America. Spatially, for example, the geometry of the image is crucial. The lawn takes up two-thirds of the photographic space and indicates precisely the sense of emptiness, sterility, and dislocation that pervades the image. Equally, the trees at the back have a looming presence that suggests a haunting otherness.'

Continuing on from my thoughts of representation for my final images, this quote above also by Clarke, explains how there is more to this photo because by the placing of the people and the scenery behind them. Addressing how this could effect the main meaning of the photo and also the feelings between the people photographed.

Taking this into consideration for my own essay images, I think focusing on Punchtum when it comes to back ground and other objects in my photos could gave a viewer more information about the young women in the images but could also show representation of young teenage girls these days.

How to read a photograph/ Punctum (task)

Stadium is the main element that grabs your attention the most from a photo, However, Punctum is a rare detail that makes the viewer feel something for a photo and pushes the photo even further. It is described a the 'pricks and bruises'


Here is a few examples of Staduim and Punctum images by James Lomax who is a British walking photographer.

Here Lomax takes a picture on London bridge explaining that your first impressions it that 'its fat and non - involving'. However, he points out that there is a man gazing into the camera, which he then discribes it as 'And as with the Cartier-Bresson shot it depicts a network of gazes, this time with direct reference to photography.'

Again here is another image taken from Lomax, what you can see immediately is 4 kids. However, Lomax draws explains that your attention is soon drawn to the steel drum behind the kids, which Lomax explains as 'But then you see the steel drum above their heads, and understand the image in a slightly different way – still cute, but also representing the psychology of the situation and, by association, suggestively changing the meaning of the yellow rope. It’s this punctum I wanted to emphasise by calling the image ‘Unimpressed’

Within this task I picked up how a small detail within an image can give a new story or add more information to the image itself. Because my essay is looking into society, using punctum could help me when trying to get my issue across in a subtle but effective way.

Data bending and glitches (Task)

Another task that we tries was data bending and glitches. This is taking an image file and changing it into an audio format in the software Audacity allowing you to change the pace, speed and he direction the 'audio' is going in. Once you have played around with the file you then convert it back into a image file allowing you do see the gliching and data bating you have done with this image.

Here is a step by step guide that we were given to help us create this data bending and also a copy of my try that im not very happy with.

Image format

When storing and saving your image you want to use image formatting, which is the storing of digital images. Different images can be stored in compressed, uncompressed and vector form. JPEG, TIF, PNG and GIF are some of the few most popular file formats.

I will be saving my final projects as JPEGS as it makes the image file smaller making it easier to save

Nikon D7000

To make sure my image come out with the best quality I decided to take a tutorial on the camera I will be suing to make sure I understand the different settings, which will help with the quality of the picture. Understanding the F-stop, Shutter speed and Aperture was difficult but important when it came to the brightness of each image. 

Cultural imaginaries & Landscape photography

Cultural imaginaries is described as an existence within a large community, of people are placed in uncommunicative sub-group.

A photographer that tries to show this is Lauren Marsolier who was born in France and has now moved over to Los Angles. Lauren takes a landscape photo in different areas at the same time and puts them together like a collage of different scenery. Some of her work featured places that did not fit a typical landscape photo, which allowed a viewer to focus on it not fitting in with its surroundings.  

When looking at the way different images from different times are placed and made to look like one pictures, it shows a similar theme of how i would like to tie my pictures together and make it look like one.  

Gender,gaze,otherness and photograph

Personally I found this subject quite hard to get my head around because of the different observations different people have on this definition. There are also many photographers who have different creative interpretations on these titles as well. The points I did gain from the presentation was

Otherness is shown as being different of differentiating from the dominant race
 Everyone is put and gathered in different groups according to different elements such as Race, gender, age and sexuality. Otherness is a term for people who steer away from the groups and are their own category of otherness.

CR2 Basics photography Coposition, Baisc,Space & application

'What you see in the photograph isn't what you saw at the time. The real skill of photography is organised visual lying.' Terence Donovan (photographer) 

This is a quote from the critical reading that I found quite intreating, when reading this quote over and over agin you start to make sense of what Terence Donovan really means. Capturing an image using a certain angle or lighting to make it greater or weaker to a viewer. This made me understand that you want a to make you photo look or give off a certain message and to do that you need to place it to create you final image.


‘Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed.’ Garry Winogrand (photographer)

Here is another quote that stood out to me when reading this reading, linking to the first quote Gary Wingrand explains that the way the image is taken or they way it has been editing is a key factor of how people look at it. This shows me that placing the camera in a certain angle or space can show the way the alter ego looks to the viewers.

CR1 Ingledew, photography: loading_2005 (notes)

When reading through this reading I found certain quotes that show photography in a powerful light and how it explained photograph is a scientific way not just a creative way. A few quotes that stood out for me and was interesting for my own photos.

' The same camera can be a simple note taker or offer a deeply personal means of expression allowing the photographer to communicate his or her emotions', 

I would like my photos to be a reflection of what I think society is making young girls see as normal, this quote shows how because of my representation of this is shows my feelings towards society and my interpretation on how I think girls think towards this 'perfect' lifestyle and how young girls are in a never ending physical and emotional spiral of trying to be this definition of 'perfect'.

Another quote that stuck out to me was:

'Photographers bear witness to events for us; they inform and educate us through their eyes. The camera preserves things that are now past, allowing us to see things that would otherwise be unseeable.'  

Again this quote shares how i'm trying to show my meanings in my photos, bringing up an issue that is forever being debated but still looked over because societies judgments is now the 'norm'. This quote just highlights how a picture can bring up a theme or issue that can easily be put away and forgotten.

Vernacular photography (presentation notes)

When going back onto the presentation on Vernacular photography I picked up that it is a cluster of pictures that shows everyday life using common pictures and things. Mostly unknown or amateur photographers are known for this type of photography.

It is also closely related to found photograph, which is pictures that have been recovered and are unclaimed or discarded.  A know photographer for found pictures is Joachim Schmid, who is a Berlin based photographer and worked with found photography since the 1980's.

Schmid would find old discarded photos at garage sales and markets and would use the portraits of different pictures and place them together to make one image.

Here are some of his work he uses Vernacular by using pictures that show everyday life. In these pictures it shows school profile pictures for a yearbook.

For my alter ego project I want to focus on everyday choices of a young women, and how her alter ego decides that she would like to be doing something better to take her fancy. This I see is similar to vernacular photography because of me using everyday life for this young girl.    

Imagery landscap (Task)

For a task we started to play around with photoshop by finding images online that showed creativity and political mix. for this task I decided to play around with overlapping images, Putting Obama and the american flag in front of 10 downing street.

With this activity I focused on the overlapping and cropping of images as a way of putting my alter ego onto the same photo as my main model as well as also using Marie-claire effect of fading images and playing around with opacity on photoshop.

Mirror/ reflection (Marie-Claire Montanari)

I also looked into Marie-Claire who is a photographer who moved from Paris to the U.S in the late 1960's. when looking through some of her photographs I came across an aspect I liked the most not really the meaning behind her pictures but the different techniques she used.

She uses Female mannequins and places them in city landscapes using fading, which is the aspect of her photos I like the most which i think i will use to show the alter ego of my model.

Mirror/reflection artists (Daniel Kukla)

Im still developing the structure for my ideas and looking into mirror images and reflections from different artists that I could use for one of my images. 

I found a photographer called Daniel Kukla that uses mirrors to reflect images of different locations and are  clamped in an easel to look like paintings. He plays around with light and angles to make the reflections look out of place to the location it is placed in. 

Even though my final images have nothing to do with refections of a location, I found in intreasting  that the reflected section looked was different to its background event though it is of the same place, making the image seem brighter more interesting. It connected to my final project in a way by using a reflected image of the same model as her alter ego yet she looks different (different clothing, facial expressions ect). 

Photographer inspiration (Andy Warhol)

I came across pop icon Andy Warhol when researching for my new idea on alter egos. Andy Warhol was born on August 6th 1928 and died February 22nd 1987. He was an American photographer.

When researching I found that Andy did a project called self portrait in drag, which he collaborated with Christopher Makos. 

When looking at Andy's work I started thinking if I would place the alter ego outside of the models body or use props, make up, body language and facial expressions to show an their alter ego.

Warhol and Makos was influenced Influenced by Man Ray’s photographers of Rrose Selavy, the female alter ego of Duchamp, Warhol refused to hide his masculine face, using the wig and make-up to bring his androgyny to exposure and heighten his own mystique.

Acereel Studio research

When researching different photographers and inspiration for my new idea of an alter ego I came across a website called Acereel Studio, which is a company that takes pictures of you with your selected alter egos for personal use. when looking through the different client pictures I came across a few (that I think are terrible) but helped me decide what kind of shots I would like to take for planning my final essay as well as the positioning of the alter ego (location).

This one I personally like the most by using a mirror to show the alter ego an it being in a different outfit showing a different side. 

New idea picture essay

Here I started my photography essay by trying to connect each image with each other to create a flowing image essay.

My idea change

When putting together my test shots on how body language can show opinion on a political view I decided that to put this clear to a viewer on a photograph it will be hard because of my low skills and understanding on how to create a good photo.

I decided to change my idea and go for something that still involves my ideas on body language, but in a way that I will be able to make a clear essay within these 6 pictures.  So I started to focus alter egos and how you want to behave when you are doing something you don't want to do. I started to do some test shots on what my new idea to see how it would work and how it would come out in a picture.

To try an create this alter ego feel to my photos I tried to edit them in photoshop by overlapping layers and playing with the fill and opacity. Then end result I came up with an image I wasn't happy with because I wanted so bits to be less transparent then the other. 

I decided to watch some tutorials and ask for some peer feedback to develop my skills in photoshop to help with my final piece. 

My attempt on test shots

When researching different photographers and looking at different photographs, I decided to try some test shots creating my own political picture using body language of a person to show their emotion or opinion on a certain place. 

For these test shots I decided to use body language to show how Ella feeling about the University of Sussex.  

With in these clusters of pictures I tried to highlight how body language can show a viewer the feeling of a certain place or thing.