Photography Presentations

·Creative Intention

What is your chosen genre of photography as discussed in class?

My chosen genre of photography is portraiture, abstract and fine art.

The reason why I have chosen this genre is because I have been researching and looking at different photographers’ work and throughout my findings I came to realise how much I like the idea of combining art and more specifically abstract art into photography.

Explain your concept/theme for this genre.

The theme chosen is a representation of the darkness and brightness of the world’ issues of today at all levels from people, violence, wars, knife crime, mental health issues, poverty, animals extinction, politicians, immigration, environmental damage (pollution)....

You need to explain your approach to your ideas and why you have chosen them?

My  ideas is to represent the issues are that going on in this world and how I perceive these issues. I feel photography is like a pathway that is meant to pass a message across to its audience. It gives me sense of duty to pass my own message across and sensibilise people about this topic matter, as a young teenager living in this 21st century, how it is affecting me and touching me to the point that it has inspired me to do something about it. I came up with my idea without inspiring myself from any others photographers or artists. These world issues are very deep and moving and I feel we hear more about them every day on the news but rather than drastic actions being taken about it to try to reduce and tackle those issues, nothing much is being done...but we hear a lot about them. This is why i want to try to illustrate these issues via photography hoping it will bring awareness and alter people’s perceptions.

Target Audience: Identify and explain this audience in relation to ongoing research you have looked at.

The target audience I would like to appeal to is mainstream. The reason behind this is because I would like to get a global message out. This message consists of bringing awareness to the arising dangers around the world such as violence, mental health, pollution and poverty. By targeting a wild audience from all ages, this will be an opportunity to engage and interest different people and attract the ones that are not particularly watching the news. The way I am planning to express my opinions on these subjects throughout my photographic work, wouldn't  be as explicit and disturbing as the news itself but I still want to startle my audience and convey messages in a more creative and subtle way.

Output; Devise a layout plan of how you feel the finished project will be shown. Print sizes, A0, A1 etc.

I want all 6 photos to be A4(210x297mm 8.3x11.7 inches)

Darkness vs Brightness

P1: Nature/ pollution Idea 1: Green face to represent nature and black Rose to represent dust from pollution Idea 2: Plastic bottle / plastic blue bag - fish in the mouth Idea 3: gas mask with asthma inhaler

P2: Racism (ref: images from pinterest / drawings)

P3: Idea 1: Kitch microphone / TV / music / bad lyrics / influence on violence Idea 2: Knife over eyes

P4: mental health ( white vail on models head) Bandage / flowers

P5: War / poverty / immigration / terrorism

P6: Brexit (union jack flags on models eyes, projection the word ‘LIE’ in white and black paint dripping down) / stars + 1 balloon

   

 Constraints; Any issues that may arise when planning the project. Studio etc.

There are going to be several constraints that I am going to come across for my project and list below.

When it comes to planning the project for example, I would need to order materials such as body neon paints, holly powder, baby powder, barbecue skewers, a black rose, a plastic fish, bandage etc, there is a risk of delay of the materials not arriving on time. How would I resolve this from happening is to order the materials in advance to minimise the chance of delay.

Another issue that may arise is that the models can be allergic to certain materials such as the body paints and the holly powder, to prevent this to happen, I will ask the model if they are aware of things they may be allergic to.

I will conduct a consent form that will cover few keys points such as allergies reaction, lateness and cancellations so if they end up having an allergic reaction, I will have evidence of consent.

Another constraint that I could come across with is if the models do not turn up to the session but to avoid this to happen, I am going to ask them to turn up a hour before to have time to do the prep make up if needed. If they cant make it, I will ask them to let me know 48hrs before to give me a notice if they think they can’t make it and I will have few models lined up as a back up plan in case this happen.

Therefore, it means that I have to be well organised by creating a list of what I have to do such as planning/booking the photographic studio a couple times for practice runs and for the actual photoshoot. To book the studio, I would have to check the schedule, see when the studio is free at the same time my models are free. I also need to take into consideration how long the make-up could take, how long setting the equipment will take and how long tidying up the studio will take. So for those sessions, I will probably need to book the studio for 2 to 3 hours so I have enough time to set up the equipment and do the make up with the help of my assistants as I am not able to do it myself but I am able to give all the instructions based on my ideas. I will also have to plan that the models will be able to access the disabled toilet in the sport in order to have a shower after the shooting. For this, I need to arrange with the sport department that the showers will be free.

Furthermore, I have to take into consideration the mess that will occur in the studio with the holly powder, baby powder and body paints. To minimise the amount of mess when setting up, I will cover all the studio equipment with black bags to avoid dust going on or in the equipment as I can afford to take the risk to have the equipment damage.

Explain your professional practice in relation to the studio.

I will have to take into account the health & safety issues and potential hazards such as slipping when I will place the black bags on the floor to prevent stains, such as someone tripping over the equipment or electric cables manual handling, sharp materials, choking on materials ,getting burned. To prevent all these issues and hazards from happening firstly, I would ensure all tripping hazards and sharp materials are moved out the way or taped down to ensure that the people in the studio are aware of the equipment. In terms of choking on materials, I will make sure the assistants will be handling the chokable materials such as holly powder and baby powder by wearing gloves so they will be unable to choke. The lights can get really hot at times when in use and after so there will be a very high chance of getting burned if touched; to avoid this I will keep the lights at a suitable distance. If a light bulbs need changing, I will protect my hands or let the technicians know so they can change it for me. If anyone was to get injured in the course of being in the studio, I will need to have on hand the number for first aiders on duty for that day. Manual handling can be a big health and safety issue like the lifting and moving of heavy equipment, when the assistants carry a light that is heavy as a result, they could hurt themselves like their back which can lead to more serious injuries. To ensure they don’t hurt themselves, I will ask the technicians to give them training on what is the correct way to carry heavy equipment and highlight. Lastly, any issues with the electric equipment can cause a  possible fire so when setting up, I will carry out individual equipment check so that if there is a faulty electrical it will be notice and dealt with as soon as possible.

Practices and Influences: your own independent research. You have to explain your research and how it’s influenced your idea development.

My first and only idea was to photograph a model sitting down, place one black rose on each eye and pour colorful bright neon paint all over her face. Whilst pouring the paint, I will have been taking a series of photos.

My intention was to represent how dark the world has become today with so many different issues that create this darkness side. The bright colourful neon paint was to represent brightness in opposition to darkness as they are still some beautiful things/aspects about the world.

Also I didn't want to make my idea obvious to the audience but  leave some room for the viewers to think and develop its own imaginary.

Then I started to share my ideas with Elodie and we will have multiple conversations about this project. She will give me feedback as well as influencing and shaping some of my ideas. She also guided me on how to carry out my research, looking at certain type of artists / photographers / websites (such as Pinterest, youtube, google) and we also went to the library to look at some books. I looked at different photographers such as Viktoria Stutz because her work is body paint and face painted which relates to my ideas and then I looked at Slava Semenyuta because he did some neon effect shooting. I watched few youtube videos based on holi powder paint photography shooting to get some inspirations ideas.

From then, I started to expand my ideas and change my mind. Instead of going for one photograph to represent ‘darkness via brightness’, I decided to go for 8 photos, each of representing a specific topic/issue. Throughout the process, I decided to focus, combine/pair some of the issues together because I thought 8 photos might be too much. So I finally made up my mind to go for 6 photographs.

Visual language: Discuss technical and aesthetical qualities of your project.