Identity

Diane Arbus

Identity, Research- identity, Uncategorised

Diane Arbus is a well known American photographer who focuses on black and white portraits of the outcasts of society. Arbus’s portraits often focus on the mentally ill, transgender people, and circus performers. Arbus’s famous portraits are still very important to photography today because, Arbus branched out into society to find people you don’t see everyday and brought them to the attention of the viewers. Personally I think the portraits worked so well because the subjects she was photographing have such a strong presence in front of the camera. Diane Arbus links to my own photography project (manipulating identity and exploring the definitions of beauty) because as a photographer Arbus takes what some people might view as ugly or unwanted and turns those groups of people into pieces of artwork.

Arbus’s work is very much about documenting whats in front of her. Arbus started out by simply roaming the streets of New York looking for certain people who caught her eye and asking them for portraits. I can take inspiration from Diane Arbus by photographing the ‘un-natural’ things I encounter in my day to day life. She links in well with my current project because my work is all about capturing the un-natural and questioning it’s beauty. I am a fan of a lot of Arbus’s work and she is a photographer who I respect and look up to a lot, one of my favourite pictures from Arbus is the portrait of the transgender man smoking a cigarette. I love this photograph because I like how the subject looks and reacts to the camera, he is looking down on the camera with a disapproving look which might reflect his opinion on how society usually treats him, he is looking down on society as they look down on him.

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Evaluation of identity project

Identity, task 2 written statment

This unit has been all about exploring identity through photography. My personal theme for this identity unit was to focus on manipulating identity, during this project I wanted to change the common perception of portraiture. Portraiture is usually about capturing the subject looking their best, an improved version of ones self. Within studio portraits the sitters appearance is often improved or altered through the use of make-up and clothing, however for my own identity project I wanted to manipulate the way a sitters portrait is usually taken. I took a lot of inspiration for this project from photographers such as; Richard Billingham, Man Ray, Nan Goldin and Diane Arbus. Looking at these photographers I realised they all have something in common, they all photograph their subjects in a raw and unflattering states, testing the boundaries of what society calls beautiful.

During my shoots I took on board how each of these photographers work to photograph their subjects and push the boundaries of portraiture. I took on certain quirks of how each of my researched photographers work and used them to improve my own way of shooting. I completed four shoots for this unit and each time I slightly changed the way I manipulated my project. My first shoot I took inspiration from Man Ray and changed the features of my subjects face and replaced them with un-natural features. This I found to be a really successful shoot, the way I placed the props to line up with the sitters actual features in these photographs was really effective. In my second shoot I took inspiration from Man Ray and Nan Goldin and used the camera technique of motion blur to manipulate my sitters appearance. Although I got some effective shots I was not happy with the overall standard these photographs came out. Finally for my third and four shoot I combined the use of flash and make-up  to manipulate the subjects appearance.

My final two shoots had the most effective results in my personal opinion because I used inspiration from all of my previously researched photographers. If I had the chance to go back and change something about the way I conducted my project, I would have done more shoots and experimented with more elements to use in the manipulation of the subject. Editing was a big part of this project, I chose to change the photographs into black and white and adjust the curvature and colour balance, I chose to change these elements using photoshop because it gave my images more detail and a better sense of manipulation. My final four image consist of two images from my third and four shoot and two images from my first shoot. I chose to include two from each because I feel the images work well together as a sequence. In conclusion I have enjoyed this project, if I could improve anything about the way I conducted this project I would have liked to have done some more artist research so I had more inspiration for my shoots.

Nan Goldin

Identity, Research- identity

Nan Goldin is a well known documentary photographer. I have chosen to research Goldin for my Identity unit because she fits in well with my theme of manipulation. Goldin’s portrait work is relevant to my theme of manipulation because she broke the rules of standard studio portraits. Goldin spent most of her time putting herself in difficult situations to capture the weird and wonderful general public. Goldin’s portraits include the gay and lesbian community, transgender community and even photographing some domestic violence cases. Nan Goldin has a very hands on approach to photography, her style is to involve herself completely in the project she is working on.

‘The Ballard Of Sexual Dependency’ Goldin’s photographic series on the LGBT community  in 1985 was a key piece of inspiration for my manipulation within identity unit. The book features many portraits of the transgender community who Goldin was living with at the time. The book helped liberate the LGBT community and in some ways contributed to the opened minded modern way of thinking we have today. I personally love the portraits because they contain such as wide range of interesting people photographed in their everyday lives. In my shoots for my own project I wanted to capture the unfamiliar and ‘un-natural’ beauty in a similar way to Goldin, using techniques such as make-up and props just as Goldin did in ‘The Ballard Of Sexual Dependency’.

images

Final Four Photographs

Identity, Research- identity, test shoot identity

These are my final four images for the Identity unit. These images were inspired by my theme for the Identity unit which was manipulation. The purpose of my manipulation project was to alter the stereotypical interpretation of a portrait. Usually the sitter in the portrait is photographed at their best using make-up artists and stylists, the aim of my photographs was to change the common perception of what the subject is supposed to look like when their portrait is being taken. I took inspiration from photographers such as; Man ray, Diane Arbus and Nan Goldin. The common factors these photographers share is their love for photographing the weird and wonderful, breaking the rules of standard portraiture. I took inspiration from these the photographers and used it in my final photographs by manipulating the appearance of the sitter. Manipulating the appearance of my sitter was overall a successful decision. While I was in the process of editing my photographs I used techniques such as high contrast and high curvature to bring out the imperfections of my subject face. This was an affective decision because it gives the photographs more tone and depth. In conclusion I am happy with the end results of my photographs, my favourite thing  about these images is how the manipulation of the face creates an illusion.

Un-edited photographs

Identity, test shoot identity

These are some of the raw results from 3 test shoots I conducted. I played around with different camera settings and props to create the images I wanted. I used flash to give the images the light they needed to make the sitter stand out against the pale background. I think using the mouth and eyes that I did was an effective choice as they work well with the subjects skin tone and other features. I wanted to make sure they lined up s best they could for the shoot so the pictures would look more realistic. I wanted the eyes to stand out to create shadows and different results when I put the photographs in black and white. Overall I am happy with the way these photographs turned out, if I could change anything about the way I conducted the shoots I would have used more advanced lighting and a wider range of props.

Edited Test Shoot Results

Identity, test shoot identity

These are some of the outcomes from the best results from my test shoots I have been conducting over the past few weeks. The theme of these images is manipulation and playing on the idea of beauty. I wanted to break the common perception of ‘normal’ portraiture by photographing the sitter in a unflattering way opposed to standard portraits taken to make the sitter look their best. I made the photographs black and white to add depth and bring out the imperfections in the sitters face and to highlight the make-up and props I added to the photographs.

Contextual studies task 1

Identity, task 1 evaluate and analyse

Comparing Photographers – Richard Billingham and Jeff Wall

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In this short essay I will be comparing the styles of two iconic photographers, Richard Billingham and Jeff Wall. I will be comparing there styles of composition, camera techniques and their styles of working. I will be looking at the photographers similaritys and differences, as well as how each photographer links to the project of identity.

Both Richard Billingham and Jeff Wall have very different styles of working, Billingham uses the technique of true documentary photography, not directing or even letting his subjects know their picture is being taken. Billingham’s aim as a photographer is to tell a true story to the nation of what life was actually like for people in working class England at the time. Billingham’s image (on the left) is really well composed, even the slightness aspects of the image such as the wallpaper against the dull brown sofas seems like they have been thought about and composed to look this way even though the images are just simple snap shots of Billingham’s home life. Billingham used a simple disposable film camera to take these shots, no fancy lighting techniques or camera tricks where used to create these images. Billingham links to the project of identity because his work is all about revealing the identity of people that do not often get the lime light in society.

Jeff Wall’s image (on the right) is composed in a way which is very different to Billingham’s image. All of Jeff Wall’s images are staged or set up to look a certain way, Wall’s style of photography is to create an unreal scene in an attempt to  create a false sense of documentation or a snap shot image. All of Wall’s images have a lot of underlined meaning to them, very aspect of his photography sets are through out and have some alternate meaning. For example the fact that Wall chose to have very prominent avocado green cupboards tells the audience this image is most likely to be based in the 1960’s due to this style of kitchen being a very popular one at this time. In juxtaposition to Billingham’s style of working Wall uses complex lighting techniques, along with digital cameras.Jeff Wall’s work links to the project of identity because his photograph is all about creating different identities and tell a short story about their personality.

In conculion Billingham’s and Wall’s work have a number of similarity’s and differences. The main difference between the two photographers is their method of composing images, Billingham is a documentation photographer so his work is all about capturing a genuine moment that has actually happened compared to Wall’s style of work which is very much about creating an artificial scene. Both photographers have a different approach to producing images, in some respects the photographs they produce are similar in ways but the method in which Billingham and Wall work are very different.

Cami Portraits

Identity, test shoot identity

These are a series of portraits I took of Cami after conducting her interview. the task was to record 10 minuets of questions from the interviewee and then take their portrait after conducting the interview. Overall I found this task useful because it prepared me for potentially being interviewed or conducting   an interview later in my photographic career. These are some of the results i gained from today’s session.

Shoot Research -Identity

Identity, Research- identity

My original idea for this identity unit was to experiment with the idea of identity through a persons possessions. I emailed and got in touch with about 20 care homes and sheltered accommodation in my local area. The original concept behind the identity project was to photography the elderly surrounded by their possessions. I was interested in how at the end of our lives our whole life is condensed down into one room. The persons possession tell a story about the life the subject has had.

I was feeling inspired by photographers such as; Richard Billingham and Adrienne Salinger’s series of documentation. The original idea was to photograph a portrait of the resident in their bedroom surrounded by all of their belongings, I think this would have had some interesting outcomes for this project as every room would have been different to the next. I contacted a lot of care homes and sheltered accommodation throughout Kent and dome in London by emailing or calling up the centre. Much to my disappointment I have had no luck gaining access to any of these organisations, due to a privacy law put in place put in place a few years ago I have not had luck with gaining access to these institutions as of yet. However I am continuing to enquire into the subject and hope to get access at some point, even if its not for this particular project.