LBM - Project 7 FREEDOM & LIBERTY

When looking at freedom and liberty I struggled to think of an idea or a restriction that would be different than the normal “caged animals” or even a wider idea such as “the law” and tried to think of freedom in more of a social context and how certain things which seem ‘normal’ to others are not really seen as ‘normal’ to other people outside of that world.

When giving this question to people outside of college the first things they say are feminism and how we claim to live in a free world yet we are not entirely equal, so using that statement as my starting point and trying to avoid the feminism route; I brainstormed and questioned others things about which are unequal in today’s society, again trying to avoid the more obvious things such as feminism and racism even though they were both main points which people brought up, however another point which kept reoccurring was how the fluidity of gender in today’s world is so more acceptable than what it was say 20 or 30 years ago. After researching into the topic more and watching films such as Before Stonewall (based on mostly true events) and Too Wong Foo With Love Julie Newmar (completely fictional) and looking into gender bending and genderfuck and reading articles about both on google scholar and even looking at viral videos on the internet of staged situations in shops where an adult actor is seen with a child who wants a fancy dress costume (the boy wanted a princess dress and the girl wanted a superhero costume) and then a grown up (who is not planted or a hired actor) would publicly announce that a “boy should not wear a princess dress and that the parent (hired actor) should act quick as its a hard to beat out of them when they are older, i also looked at articles which looked into Angelina Jolie and how she is “destroying” her child by letting her child chose their name and the pronouns that they wish to go by,  all of which provided me with enough evidence that this is a restriction on everyday life.

i thought that i should explore this by doing a series of portrait photographs of a person from each gender dressed up as the other however once this shoot was done i realised that the images that i had taken were not strong enough, and they looked slightly comedic something which i did not want to show while handling such a delicate subject, so instead of doing this i planned to take some still life images in the style of lisa Milroy and having one object be different in the whole bunch of them, this provided me with a method of getting my message across but in a less obvious way and enabled the viewer to see the image and for them to create their own ideals of what it means.

LBM - Project 6 - OPPOSITES, CONTRADICTIONS & JUXTAPOSITIONS

For this project i wished to step away from digital photography and experiment with double exposures, i chose to use an INSTAX 90 to take the photos, the images came out of the camera in a small sized image and were both exposures took place within the camera. I chose to do this after looking into Victorian Ghost portraits and looking at amateur photographers create double exposures on Photoshop.

While exploring the double exposures i started off by doing a single face and moving it into a different position, this however was unsuccessful as it created a blend making it look like one person, after trying this a couple of times i moved onto another focusing more on the ghost effect, i placed the camera onto a tripod and took one photo with one person standing in one place and them standing in another without moving the camera, this enabled the background to stand out more as it had been exposed twice, however the images of my subject were the opposite they were very faded and i had got the effect that i had wanted, however i did not want to stop experimenting with the double exposures, next step i wanted to combine the human form with harsh structures for example i had various images of a human with a building or a bookcase, a structure that was not necessarily a similar shape or had a contrasting colour, this combination seemed very odd at times however a few examples worked very well. After this i went back to the first attempt but tried it with two people, and got them to swap places and pull the same face in either photo, this created a very hybrid face morph type image.

When trying to narrow down my images i found that using most of them separately rather than using them to create a set of images provided me with a much stronger set of images than they would if i tried to force a set upon them.

LBM - Project 5 - CHRISTMAS - Final Images

LBM - Project 5 - CHRISTMAS

Over Christmas i captured a few images to try and capture the real “essence of Christmas” most of my images were taken on an iPhone due to the lack of camera, however when i did take my camera out and to events the results are a lot better than what they were on the iPhone.

LBM - Project 4 - TWO WEEK TV PROJECT.

The week before Christmas everyone was able to pick a project they wished to take part in, I chose to take part in the two week live tv project. The brief was that we had to create a arts show which fulfilled certain briefs. Working in a team of 15 we chose to base our TV show around Jack the Ripper and how he is a future body artist who took influence from Sarah Lucas who at the time had an exhibition at the Whitechapel gallery, we took all this information to create the basis of the TV show.

Once the basic skeleton was create we made timelines and a rough script to then rehearse with our actors. We then had a chance to have a go at a rotation where we get to have a chance to try out various sections of the process which are integral to making a TV show.  First of all we had a talk about lighting and due to health and safety we were not able to actually use the lighting rigs however we talked about the moods and how it is vital to setting a mood, next was the cameras, we were taught how to focus a camera and the different types, after the camera workshop we were able to see what the production assistant and the director do when up in the gallery, we also were taught how scripts are created and the right software to put them on. After this we had a chance to see what happens within the sound booth, getting taught what happens and what button to press to fade the sound over and all sorts.

Once this day was over we had the other half of the day to rehearse and plot where the actors were meant to be and the other cues for the lighting and such, due to having a short period of time we struggled to complete a full run through in that one day, however on the next day we had the first half of the day to attempt to do a full run through, however one actor was late and we could not do anything without them, a problem which would be faced in the real world, so while we waited we set up and made up the other two actors and continued to wait and then it was time to record it live...

after several tries of the start of the show and a multiple shots of the ending the end result was a positive one, even though we made several changes the show still remained to the main style of how we wished for it to turn out like.

LBM - Project 3 "TRANSCRIPTION" - Final Images.

LBM - Project 3 "TRANSCRIPTION"

Once returning and having seen all the exhibitions i chose to explore the theme of “home truths” and the relaxed and hidden photography style of the images which were seen in both exhibitions. I chose this path to go down as there was a death in my family and i felt like i should explore the feeling of grief and how people respond to it.

using the process of ‘hidden’ photography i was able to capture my mother in  quite vulnerable moments when she was what seemed to be grieving on the outside, by doing it this way there was no disagreement to her being involved in this project, also once the images were taken I then asked for her permission, also looking back at the home truths exhibition alongside the images of the people there were also still life images to go alongside them,  so very last minute i decieded that i would include some still life images, however this proved difficult. So due to it being last minute i just focused on getting an image of the order of service photographed in a manner that seemed to tell the narrative very well.

once in the crit i was informed that the model is not important when it comes to the images, so therefore to act as if they were a puppet as such and to create the photo with them not around them.

LBM - Project 3 "TRANSCRIPTION" - Trip Overviews

For the transcription project we had to take influence from various artists and art exhibitions that we would go see during the two week period, however we would not have to take a direct responce we could just copy the methods and processes rather than a straight set up copy.

The trip started at the National Gallery at the ‘Saints Alive’ exhibit by Michael Landy. It featured various mixed media pieces and a number of interactive sculptures in the room that would respond to a button push and would animate in a self-destructive manner such as hitting themselves with a rock and on the other side of things you were presented with structures which resembled a game such as a lucky dip style claw machine, which would reach inside the headless figure of stain franis and a “spin the saint Catherine wheel” where you can spin and see which quote you can get.

The next stop was the ICA where there was various pieces however there was a surrealist set of pieces by Lutz Bacher the main one being ‘Black Beauty’ which was a room filled with black stand with a structure in the middle, a broken mirror and a repeated recording, you were able to walk onto the sand and see where other people have stood and get up close to the structure and broken mirror therefore becoming a part of the work.

After the ICA we went to the photographers gallery to view the two exhibitions which were taking place, the main ones was the ‘Home Truths’ this was mainly about motherhood, what happens within the privacy of someone’s home. These images were graphic and showed what motherhood really is for some people the images were rarely staged and were mostly taken in a photo documentary style, so that the subject was unaware that a photo of them was being taken. This was the main exhibition that i took my influence from for the project, for mostly the process and how the images were taken very slyly and hidden therefore making the emotions come through and really highlight and tell a story.

After the photographers gallery we went to the Corinne Day exhibition and alike to the home truths exhibition the photos were very raw and were very rarely set up, all the images within the exhibition proved to be in a comfortable situation and were not posed, this then enabled them to show the real side of people and what they are truly like.

Finally, it was the Phillip- Lorca DiCorcia exhibition which featured pieces which ranged from nature and landscape images, to ones which an adult theme, and alike to the last two exhibitions all the images were posed and set up.

LBM - Project 2 " WHO ARE YOU?" Part 2 Final Images

LBM - Project 2 " WHO ARE YOU?" Part 1 Final Images Suggested Layout

LBM - Project 2 " WHO ARE YOU?" Part 1 Final Images

LBM - Project 2 " WHO ARE YOU?"

For this project it was split up into two parts, one was to construct a questionnaire of a minimum of 10 questions and to then take the results of the questionnaire and to respond to the responses to our questions. When thinking of the best way to respond I dabbled with the idea of doing a still life set up of various items which linked into the responses, however this proved difficult when faced with the response regarding when I made my brother run into a wall and break his nose, so I felt that I should move onto a more practical approach.

I decided that I would take my images while talking and asking the people my questions, therefore capturing their reactions to reminiscing or even them in mid sentence, this made my outcomes more relaxed and a better response to the brief. However these images alone felt very bland and boring, so I felt that perhaps adding text and another image alongside each photoset that they would stand better together, however when in the final crit, there were mixed feeling that the text was necessary some said that the text killed the emotions in the images whereas some people felt that the text added a commercial/documentary feel to the images.

Part two was to pick an object in our lives which has high importance to you and has a story connected to it, we had to let the object tell the story with not much work attached to it.

For my object I chose my eye mask, something which I rely on almost daily due to my migraines, I took one image of the mask and edited it two ways on facebook. One I increased the brightness (to show that during a migraine all light even the tiniest trickle can make it worse) and the other I decreased the brightness (to show that complete darkness is what the eyemask gives me and how vital that is), however in both images I made sure that the eye mask itself stayed the same level in each one.  So for this part i had a series of 3 images, one bright, one normal and one dark. During the crit the main point which was brought across was the lack of the main story and how my ideas were not very developed which is something that I shall take forward to the next project.

LBM - Project 1 "SHAPE AND FORM" - Rupert Shriver Final Images

LBM - Project 1 "SHAPE AND FORM" - Final Images

LBM - Project 1 "SHAPE AND FORM"

Once starting the project, I created a brainstorm which was to become my main starting point for this project, by doing the brainstorm I reached several ideas and were able to have a stock pile of artists to look at during the project, some of these were Man Ray and his photograms which proved to highlight the main idea of shadows and how they can show the shape and the overall structure and form of an object, however i wished to push my ideas further and i looked at paper folding and the art of origami, this lend me to find an artist called Paul Jackson who had a series of photos exploring how a sheet of paper can change when it has one crease pressed through it, this was then the starting point for my first shoot.

My first shoot went well, i had created a small portable studio within a dark space in my house, and working with white paper and the use of a portable lamp i was able to use the shadows to highlight the curves of the paper, this worked well due to the fact that as the lamp wasn’t in one set position and i did not have any other light sources i was able to have full control over the light and the shadows which were produced. The problems which occurred was when i tried to use tracing and/or tissue paper the heat of the lamp would cause the paper to curl and distort itself, this was a struggle when i wanted to have the lighting in a certain way, so due to this i did not use tracing and/or tissue paper again i just stuck to plain white paper.

After this was done, I wished to push the idea further by going back to my brainstorm i was able to see that one of my points was the human body and facial features and how they can adapt and change to become something different. However as this did not nessicarily link into the work i had done previously i had to do some further research once this was done i came across Rupert shriver. Rupert shriver would paint portraits either in a way which seemed for the image to be distorted and screwed up or he would paint a perfect portrait and then destroy it. By doing this he completely changed the shape of the face, and how you as a viewer view his work.

Using this as a starting point and with not much time left on the two week set brief, I collected some old portraits that i had taken of family members and then went through the same process of before by crumpling and folding the images so that they would take a whole new form and look to the overall image causing the viewer to second guess what they are actually looking at.