Finished and editied

So over the weekend I edited the pictures in the way I wanted experiment with and then today I put them through the lenticular procedure. One thing I decided to experiment with was enlarger of facial features. So far I’ve only really though about what it would look like to remove people facial features however I’ve never thought about enlarging and that’s what some suggested in a tutorial a couple of weeks back. I’m really not sure what to think, like it would, in a way, people who saw me creating the pictures said some positive things however I’m not bought. I think it’s too comical, I had this problem in college where I had a technique which I experimented with and all of a sudden it look more comical then anything else and I initially set of wanted to produce work that would have some sort of shock value, not make people laugh. Images 3,4 & 8 are all with the enlarged features, I do like them, and there is almost something mysterious about them, which I do like however on the opposite hand they just don’t fit my aim which is really annoying and kind of problematic with a part of my mind looked at the final outcome. Pictures 7 & 10 are what I did in my first try, face looking at 3 or 4 different locations and then overlaid, I think 7 works the best as it hasn’t been manipulated in any way and to be it just works. Picture 9 is the same image twice however in one there are no facial features, got to say it has a very ghostly look about it, however another problem I’ve encountered is that sometimes making the lenticular and not putting the plastic over it looks like it really lowers the quality which is a bit annoying. Just because I want a fresh set of eyes on this project I’m having a meeting with my first year tutor Nick Lockett to see his opinion on my work.

Post photoshoot

So after the photo shoot I’m not too happy with the outcome however at least I’ve got some work edit however not as much as I would have liked. Unfortunately I only have three people show when ideally I would have had double and that’s how many people I was told would come. Not the end of the world however it does bring the question of why I decided to do a project on portraits in the first place as I’ve often had difficulties with trying to organise people in the past. Anyway after that note the three people who did show I’m very thankful of and also thankful that they where good people to photo. What I decided to do was keep it short and simple. Basic medium shot portrait with them facing directly into the camera and then looking at either side of the camera. I think it should give me some good looks when I edit them and put them through the lenticular process. Also for the sake of it and did a full body shot as I have a couple of ideas in mind that I want to experiment with. Below are four pictures of one of my models, just showing the shots that I was aiming for and the look I wanted.

Random Internet

Over the last couple of months I've come across or been show several random items on the internet that have really took my interest and really link into this project well. This first is a set of images I found and shown below in which has two images layered over each other, one of human and one of animal. I would imagine that this is fashion photography however I feel it fits into what I'm doing nicely. I really like it, using only 2 colours on a solid black background works fantastically for me and overall really works to an advantage. I really think it could be an interesting thing to look at for me, however instead of looking at a human with a animal have the person and an object that really defines them. For example have a photographer and a camera, or musician with a violin or even a IT specialist with a apple logo. Definitely an idea to keep in mind for the later stages of this project.


The image below is kind of what I would have liked to have created at the start of this project. Looking at identity and how you choose what you want the real world to see you as. This image is just a very heavy photoshopped image. It works however its not amazing to me even though it would normally be really interesting to me. Would could work for my project is having a single person, however have them change their own look for different needs and have them layered over each other. Could touch fashion photography with this but just an idea.


This picture, despite it being a room of naked women I really like, the removing of the face and hair is what I'm doing and it also has a feel about identity. It would appear they are all wearing heels and you can see imprints on their legs from the shoes. Again this is properly bordering on fashion, or lack of fashion but I really enjoy is as a photo. I know I'm not going to be able to get that many naked people in one room however I really think it has potential is some way or form and I think it would be good to incorporate it into my own work

Ideas

Tomorrow, Thursday 24th I have my first studio shoot of 2011, its really pretty late however its taken me this long to really know what I want to do. I'm almost certain I'm going to be doing the lenticular idea however I've still got to make a choice between using the lenticular plastic and make the image change but not how it should be, OR, simply without, use the software to create the image however leave it at that point, have a solid black frame around instead of the lenticular lines as that also seems quite effective. I think that after this shoot and I've played around with the software it will come pretty easily to me, hopefully.

My plans for tomorrow are relatively simple, shooting on a white background and nothing over the top, close up of face, likely to include shoulders just for space and maybe if I have the time a couple of full body shots. Initially I want the same from my first shoot, looking left, centre and right, but, again if I have time and models, looking up and down, pulling different emotions some good overall experimentation.

Sam Taylor-Wood

The work of Sam Taylor-Wood has had my interest for many a year now however with a lot of it being video or huge panoramas I’ve never been able to look at him, apart from now. I was recently flicking through his self-titled book when I came across a load of stills from his video Method in Madness (Link at bottom). In the video it shows a middle-aged man having a break down and going through many different emotions. I’ve also posted several stills from this video below. It’s a great video that, over the 10 minutes you really can stop watching and been done so well that it does provoke some emotions whilst watching it, like pity for the man but also amusement, you see this is a few other Taylor-Wood videos and he is one of my short film directors. What I found interesting when having my work in mind is that the man never actually moves from that one position and that’s heavily linking with my work whilst working with lenticular. When I come around to doing the actual shoot this kind of work is what I’m going to be looking at producing. Having the model in one position and pulling many different facial features and then in postproduction overlaying them. I’m going to have to draw up a list if possible poses that I’m going to want and looks that I will want to achieve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_rk9ejDQY4



Sam Taylor-Wood

Stefano Scheda

Straight from the get go I have to say I really like the work of Stefano Scheda, the look of his work a whole is something that I really like and think that as a group of work it works really well. I would say that he most favorite full body portrait photographer, reading into him I found great quote where he says ‘The body itself it a portrait, even when it lacks a face. It typifies the photographed individuals despite them being ‘beheaded’. It retains its own uniqueness without acquiring the same iconic value as the face, which continues to hold sway as the mark of uniqueness in the social code’. I think that this for his work it’s a great comment and I also feel that it would with a lot of photographers around. For me what works so great is the change of covering the people’s eyes and also the person being completely naked, the combination of the two works really well. Also just the overall concept of the pieces of work for me is great, combining man and women’s body into one in a pretty simple idea but has worked with great effect. In my own work I think it would be great to do some nude shoots and try an get some full body models and just do the same as what I am planning to do with the faces, I think it would give an interesting feel and would help make people get drawn into the work, all providing I can get the models to do it.


The Portrait, Photography as Stage

Julian Wolkenstien

Again whilst looking though backdated portfolios’ I came across Julian Wolkenstien who does nearly the exact same thing a John S. The use of colour completely changes the entire mood of the image. With John S’s work there is something odd about, I think its because he uses children however its bordering on comical to me. Wolkenstien’s work is much neater, shooting on the grey background and more of a medium shot for me works a bit better as he has also done half of the torso as well which is interesting. I think it would be interesting to do full body and take another step back, would have to be naked because cloths show to many shadows and different textures but if I could get the models then I differently think it would be worth the experimentation. Also you wouldn’t need to use lenticular and just have them as well, even 1:1 ratio prints.

John Strezaker

I was looking through some old Portfolio magazines a few days ago when I came across the photographer John Strezaker who I hadn’t heard of before. His work is really interesting, it’s a body of work titles ‘Fearful Symmetry’ in which he simply takes half a persons face and then mirrors to create one. As you can see from the images below they are pretty weird to look at. In the covering essay it says that he only uses children in the work and it works, it almost looks like they are sculptures not photography. Img 01 looks somewhat like a doll and Img 03 looks like some type of creature from a film, which for me really has something about it. I’ve got say that I would like to incorporate this into my own work, theres another photographer called Julian Wolkenstien who does the exact same but with adults so I would have to try and do something with it and lenticular but could work really well. I also think it be pretty hard to copy, you would have to find people with no make-up, short hair that’s neat and lots of base symmetry.

LCD Design

Whilst browsing around on the Internet one day I discovered a design agency called something like LCD Design who more importantly do some pretty amazing photo editing that goes with my work pretty well. All four of the images below are in the some path of what I want to achieve. For example img 1, it actually is relatively gory but not over the top which spot on for what I am wanted to achieve. I haven’t yet contemplated using props as I think that would lead down a path away from the initial idea however if anything comes up then I’ll give it a go. Img2 on the other hand is much more heavily modified and really that’s what I wanted to do in the first place however my technique ability isn’t really strong enough. It does look very good however it’s not something that I see do able within this project. I’ll e able to take aspects of it however I don’t see that I’ll be able to do a complete modification. Img3, 4 seems like it’s the closest to the type of work that I’m going to be doing on this project, straight on portraits and only modifying the head. Agreed I want be taking away the whole head like those two images however I would say that they are a good overall look of what I will be likely to produce with in the next few months.
Overall I really like this work, it’s much like the Erik Johnason work that I looked at earlier just not so extreme. I feel that this is the main level that I want to get my work to look like, obviously not as professional however it’s the type of work that I will always be keeping in mind.


Internet source

Robert Mapplethorpe

Whilst looking at the work of Robert Mapplethorpe is that I really think that his work wouldn’t be as interesting if it wasn’t made black and white. The individual shots for me don’t really bring anything new to the world of photography, that’s not to day they are bad however more a long the lines that been there, done that. Looking at this artist statement he says that he is mainly interested in the human form and you can see that in his work. They reason why I’ve wanted to put his work on this blog is because of his use of black and white. In studio environment and using a black background he has been able to produce some pretty interesting shots because he has been able to find some very interesting models and that I do like. Img01 I struggle to tell if that person is alive or not but there is something pretty interesting about the look of her. I don’t really know if I can take anything from this work, maybe having the person look dead and then alive could be interesting however with the lenticular effect if may not look as good as I would hope, might be work a try and will give it a go.


The Portrait, Photography as Stage

Boris Mikalov

To look at a completely different style of photography that often incorporates portrait photography I decided to look at Boris Mikalov’s book looking into the break-up of the soviet-union. His work is primarily documentary however with him documenting homeless people a lot of the time he is taking portraits and some of the time relatively posed. Out of a lot of the work that I’ve looked at from many different artists, his is the one that just has a strong emotion feel about it, as it’s a strong topic that he is focusing on. Also, the people that he is photographing are not most normally of looking people. This is something that has got me thinking, so far with me only doing the one photo shoot I’ve not even contemplated that kinds of people that I will be wanted to use in my pictures. The reason why I choose to use a girl was because of the facial hair and a more easier to work with face however now looking at it a man with a beard may work, or a girl with a lot of make-up on might work equally as well. I’m certainly going to have to have a big experimentation when it comes around and try and get a large amount of different faces. Looking back at Mikalov’s work it might even be good to look at people with something extraordinary about there face, even just basic stuff like a bent nose or possibly a wonky eye, nothing like the extremes that he has captures but maybe a water downed version.
Overall I really like Mikalov’s work, looking through his book even I have to admit that some parts are pretty hard to look at however in my opinion that’s what makes his work so great, it think it would have been interesting to get some of the people into a more stages studio however it might have changed the way that they act.


Case History

Man Ray Re-visited

I recently happened to stumble across a Man Ray book of his portrait photography and I thought it would be good to re-visit his work. Now straight away I know that the work of Man Ray is not at all what I’m going to be doing however he is such an iconic person he is hard to ignore. Whilst looking at his work I find it hard to figure out exactly what it is some of the time, you would think that it portrait photography however in come example I wouldn’t know if it is. For example img 02/03 the target’s eye line is of camera, but not like it’s on purpose, and it’s almost as though Man Ray is documenting the people some of the time. I guess it’s because he was kind of in unknown territory but a lot of his pictures almost seem like photo snaps, which is odd, as these pictures will have taken more setup. Unfortunately I can’t really take anything from looking at Man Ray as photography has come on so much since his time however I still like to just look at his work and think just how much he has achieved.


Man Ray's Paris Portraits. 1921-39

Howard Schatz

I was browsing a few website today when I can across some pretty interesting work by Howard Schatz. It has a pretty basic concept however it works very. All it is is actors pulling very strong emotions and it works really well. I think that this could work really well combined with lenticular and just do exactly what he is, get some people who would be able to do the faces necessary and then layer them and create a lenticular, it would be pretty basic however it might be on of those things that just pays of, can only try and see. Overall I really like this work, I think because he has been able to use people who can pull the kind of facial expressions well helps a lot however it also just is a basic idea that has worked well, I like it.

Ralph Steadman

Just looking through some books in the library I came across the work of Ralph Steadman, straight away it got me interested. The works comical, almost caricatures but it just nicely fits into this project. The actual working method is all physical; in his book it says that the pictures are Polaroid’s that he has then pushed the paper in certain ways to alter the overall picture. If I can get my hand on a Polaroid then I would love to experiment with it however I’m not sure I could easily get myself a camera, but still it’s good to look at. I think what I like about it so much is that its extreme, the reason why I normally like caricatures is that they are never subtle and always over the top which for me works well. I suppose one thing I could experiment with doing is this in Photoshop and really manipulate the portraits, use the liquify tool and really play around.

Rineke Dijkstra

The work of Rineke Dijkstra is photographically the middle ground between the two photographers Thomas Ruff and Valerie Belin whose work you can see earlier in this blog. The reason why I’ve decided to look at her work is because to me it is the most effective portrait style. Whilst reading her comments about this project she says that she works to show political issues, in this case women and for this she has taken photos that are able to show her target almost perfectly. Very well lit, eye and body facing the camera and framed just below the shoulders really helps to display the person to her audience, as you can see from the two pictures below they are both pretty striking pictures that really capture the person very successfully. I like it, looking at the photographers I have so far I would say that hers is my most preferred working style I’ve seen, as much as I like the work of Belin, her work wasn’t showing the person with any feel as she was showing the face as a mask and I see that as being something I’m going to need to pay attention to. This project doesn’t have an actually backbone, I don’t know if it really needs one however I’m not doing this project for any real purpose apart from artistic and when looking at other portrait photographers they all have a strong reasoning to be doing the pictures in the way they are. This is something that I feel is going to raise it’s head later on and its something that I don’t know about.


The Portrait, Photography as Stage

Colin Gray

Whilst looking at a couple of books in the library I came across the photographer Colin Gray who I have to say I’ve never heard of before. The series I was looking at was called ‘Parents’ in which he is taken picture of his parents in odd posses and locations. Overall it wasn’t really taken my interest until I found two pictures that I thought where pretty interesting (Img 01 and 02). The reason being is the use of props. The women looking through the glass gives a good effect and certainly feels like something that I could incorporate into my own work. So far I’ve only been thinking about doing this project mainly in post production however I feel that it could be interesting to do it whilst taken the photo. I think it shouldn’t be too hard to achieve, using a fisheye lens would work well and even a 10-20 could get some interesting effects but also getting a wine glass could work well and some other tools could be good.
Another series in the same book of his that got my attention was this one called ‘Close-ups’ and all of them being extreme close ups of skin, see Img 03. Just as an experiment what I’m contemplating just overlaying a portrait with a close up on skins whilst using lenticular has it should hopefully merge the two images into one but at the same time give a strong look which should be good for what I want to achieve.


'the parents'

Nan Goldin

I decided that I should look at a different type of portrait photography and one of the most obvious people to look at in that field is Nan Goldin. Reading up on her work she is more of a documentary photographer then portrait but with this it opens up a whole different side of this project. What she captures and does so well is show grit, as good as the portraits are they you can’t deny that they are very gritty, showing the ever dangerous and unknown underworld. Unlike a photographer like Martin Parr she aims to capture the people she documents close and personal, and a lot of the time the portraits are relatively simple, like Thomas Ruff she has eye contact and has the body facing the camera as well and apart from img 04 they are all passport portrait in frame which is pretty unique and for what she is doing works very well. I think that there could be a problem with my work and that is that with me going to be using lenticular I may struggle shooting on location with having a busy background. You never know and if I can feel that a shoot is work it may be a great new outlook for this project but somehow I don’t think it would work as well as being in a studio.


'Emotions and Relations'

Valerie Belin

With the same thing in mind when I was looking at Thomas Ruff I came across another great portrait photographer Valerie Belin whose portraits are still fairly basic however look completely different with several key changes. First of is unlike Ruff the models, as you can see in the images below, are now not looking at camera and due to this their bodies are now pointing away from camera as well, say 45 degrees right. It’s a pretty powerful look, Belin has obviously paid a large amount of attention to the facial expressions of her models as Ruffs are almost soft and with out emotions but Belin’s have an almost empty look about them, maybe straight on it would look much more like Ruffs however I’m not sure. I think this pays heavily with the change to a black background and the models being topless as it has taken away every distraction and has somewhat bought out the complexion of the people’s faces. I’ve got to say I like her work, probably a bit more then Ruffs just because it seems a lot more striking which to be is really good. In my own work I think what could be good is to take picture from 3 different angles, say 45 degrees left, straight, 45 degrees right and overlay them as that could be quiet effective I feel.


'The Portrait, Photography as Stage'

Thomas Ruff

For a starting point I wanted to look at photographers who take portrait photos that are very straight on and don’t seem to be aiming to do anything surprising. With this in mind I came across the photography Thomas Ruff whose work I had seen before but not his portrait work. The two images below, to me a very straight forward, eye contact with the camera, almost passport style when it comes to the framing, basic makeup, hair and attire and therefore extremely basic portraits. Even with me saying this I like them, it’s good to see work that’s not trying to be provoke a shock value, especially when looking at some other Ruff pieces of work. I always find something surprisingly special about a set of portraits that all look the same and are all ‘passport portraits’ even though I normally enjoy a more distracting photo. In connection to my own work this is got to be the starting point, just experimenting with making the target being very straight and nothing over the top, with all of my work going to be in post production I’m going to need my Raw photos to be easier to edit with strong lighting and lots of detail. Thinking about it I’m also going to need to pay attention to the people’s hairstyle and possibly clothing as I’m going to need both of these things not to be distracting, or maybe it will play well to what I want to achieve. We will have to see.



'The Portrait, Photography as a Stage'

Research

Last term I was only really focusing on photographers that working heavily with photoshop and who you would almost call graphic designers. With this in mind I'm going to now look a photographers who take pictures of portraits. Hopefully I'll be able to get a good round look from the basic very straight on studio style, to shots on location and then shots that are closer to documentary then portrait as I feel that this will give me some good results. With this almost being a fresh start I'm going to need to research photographers that I will be able to adapt into my own working method and to look at people who will help me get motivation from their work. One some hitch is that I've never really looked into this field of photography so I'm going to have to have several library visits, try and look through a large amount of journals and also use the internet to complete this task.
People I know I'll want to look into are the photographers Nan Goldin, Sam Taylor-Wood and Thomas Ruff who I know all do portrait photography in some way or form and should be a good starting point.

Excuse

The reason why I've not being updating since the end of 2010 is because I've been shooting a lot on location for my other project which is running parallel to this one. Also I made the decision that I would be most productive for me to spends full month on one project then a full month on the other, and with the way the work was going I decided that I should spend January doing the work for the other project due to me having to write an essay for that project and that I should then spend February doing the work for this as I would be able to almost start again with parts of 2010 being slightly unproductive and I'm able to start almost from the beginning which is a positive in my opinion.

Semi-fresh start

I've come to the point that I need to make some really strong plans for this project as a whole. It's not that it's currently bad just more that it's not exactly going anywhere and I need to do something that will motivate me. First of, no video, the thing that I tried wasn't bad but didn't exactly work well and I feel that it will take too long for me to make it look good and by doing so I would ignore other areas of the project. By ignoring video means that I'm only going to work by photography and following on with the ideas that I have done already this year I've come to the conclusion that the lenticular is by far my best bet. The reason being is that, to me it feels individual, throughout my research so far I've yet to come across anything that looks that much like it and I know that within my class no one is doing anything at all the same as it. The problem I now have is that I am entering a territory that I am not at all familiar with, being portrait photography. I've got a bit of experience with it and I know how to set it up however what I am not used too is having to organise people and for that reason it may take me several weeks to get going with the photographic side of the project. I'll also have to go and try and find some models which will be new to me as that is certainly something I'm new to as normally I get friends of friends to be used in shoots and for this project I think it would be good to get a larger array of people. I do truly believe that this project will go well, from just that one picture I created at the end of last term I got a very positive response from it and that was the most basic thing I've done so hopefully with a bit more experimentation I should really be able to create some exciting photography, which, hopefully will be able to follow my initial ideas of creating work that is able to both shock the viewer and provoke some kind of feeling. Whatever the outcome the one thing that will be certain is that they will HAVE to look at my work, it wont be just a portrait, or just a landscape however a piece of work that the viewer will have to spend some time looking at it to really figure out what it is which is exactly what my main aim for this project was in the first place.