Cindy Sherman is an American photographer who is known best for her elaborately disguised self portraits that focus a lot on social role playing and the sexual stereotyping of women. In 1977 Sherman worked on ‘Complete United Film Stills’ a series of 69 photographs challenging the stereotypes put in place by the media. Sherman likes to play on Social issues, playing with the idea of femininity in the media. Her photo series in 2000 focused exaggerating female attributes, I response to the medias idea of female beauty standards. As a photographer Sherman focuses mainly on how she lights her models and their pose and facial expression. Sherman is trying to create a piece of art in response to a social issue so its important that she gets all the elements of her photographs right.

This image below take from Shermans photo series in 1977 (complete United Film Stills) I love the camera angle, it empowers the woman in the photograph. It shows the women of the time in a different light juxtaposed to the way they are seen in society as second class citizens. The backdrop of the building is a really effective background, it shows women in the city not at home in the kitchen. The expression on the models face as works really well with the theme of the photograph, the determined look on the ladies face shows she is ready for work and ready for the challenges ahead. Shermans strengths lie in the overall compoistion of the images, Sherman is very good at creating a story within a image. All of the images in the ‘Complete United Film Stills’ are featured in black and white. Putting the photographs in black and white gives the images a timeless feel.

I have chosen to look at Cindy Shermans work for my own individual project because I love the timeless look Shermans photographs have. This is an effect I would love to re-create in my own photographs. Putting a political undertone within images is something many photographers have been doing for years. My own project for this unit will not be featuring any political or social issues but this is defiantly something I will look into doing for a future project.

Dorothea Lange was a documentary photographer who photographed the Great Depression in America. Her most famous photo is ‘The Migrant Mother’ which was a migrant family living in America working long days in the fields. Lange never worked in a studio she used her skill as a 20th century photographer to travel and document people and places she encountered. I enjoy the outside element Lange uses in her portraits. Lange always includes the outside elements in her photographs, they help to tell the story of the subject in the photograph. As I’m going to be shooting outside for most of the individual project I can take on Lange’s experience and included the outside elements into my own environment, getting the model to interact with the environment around them to help with the images story telling .

This particular image below is one of my favourite Dorothea Lange photographs. I love how the child is playfully lying in the grass, I also like how Lange has used the sun to her advantage, capturing the shadows of the grass and making sure they are cast on the child’s face. The shadows are noticeable however they are not distracting, they add texture and contrast to the child’s face and jumper, also makes the black and white element more effective as it creates contrast and difference within the photograph. The fact the the girl is also not looking into the camera is also an effective element of this shot. The girl seems to be completely un-aware that her picture is even being taken. This makes the shot more of a documentary shot rather then a set up portrait.

Having the model not looking at the camera is an effective use of camera work. It makes the audience more involved in the subjects story, it makes us question why is she not looking at the camera? does she know her photograph is being taken? creating a sense of mystery in photography work is a key factor when creating a good picture, to not give all the details away keeps the audience asking questions. Looking at Lange’s work has inspired me to create mystery within my work, not always having the subject looking at the camera is ok.  As I have my final shoot coming up I am going to incorporate the inspiration I have gained from looking at Dorothea Lange’s work. 

David Bailey is a British fashion photographer who has worked with a number of celebrities over his career. David Bailey is a fashion photographer who also has done lot of music photography over the years. Bailey is known for his amazing studio photography work and is most welcome known for his stunning studio portraits. The picture below called ‘Mick Fur Hood’ is one of my personal favourites, I love the soft effect the black and white has on the sitters face, clearing the face of any imperfections and just bringing out the features on the models face. The positioning of the garment on the model is really effective, I can tell the Bailey is from a fashion photography background just from the way the coat is wrapped around the model making the audience feel the softness of the hood.

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer … it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary’ is a quote from David Bailey he made about his exhibition stardust. I can personally learn a lot from a photographer like David Bailey, the quote he made is relevant to my current project because imagination is a key element when creating a piece of artwork, before thinking about taking a photo its good to step back and look what you are actually taken a photograph of. Having a good creative eye is better than being a technical photographer. I personally see myself to be more a creative photographer then a technical one, this is something I can use as an advantage in my work.

Bailey also quotes “your connection with a subject is more important than your technical ability” I personally think this quote is a good example of what defines a good or bad photographer and is a quote I am going to use to inspire me in my future projects. Bailey includes his own personality into his photographs, this is something I am going to take away from looking at the work of Bailey. This individual project is all about reflecting my strengths as a photographer so adding my own personality into my photographs is a key part of making sure my photographs are different from others.

Nan Goldin is a well know photographer is is predominately known for her up close and personal documentary work. Goldin came to fame when she released her book ‘The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency’ released in 1986 was a book featured members of the LGBT community in a way the public had never seen them before. Goldin lived with the LGBT community for two years while documenting their everyday lives. Goldin has a very hands on approach when photographing her subjects, she often spends weeks living with them to really get to know them as people while photographing them. Living with her subjects gives Nan Goldin an advantage because her subjects don’t just see her as a photographer, they see her as a friend. Gaining her subjects trust is a big part of Goldin’s method of working. If the subject trusts the photographer the results are always going to be of a better quality.

Nan Goldin is one of photographs hardcore photographers, she put herself in the middle of difficult situations to get the photographic results she wanted. Goldin has put herself in many dangerous situations, in the middle of fights, abusive relationships and dangerous areas around the world. The most important part of Goldin’s method of working is to get to know and respect her sitters. In Nan Goldin’s photograph shown above from her book ‘Ballard Of Sexual Dependency’ I love the lighting technique Goldin has used in this image. The flash really highlights the most significant part of the photograph making the character in the middle the centre of attention. The low camera angle makes the subject look heroic and proud to be part of the LGBT community. Photographing this trans person in the same way work leaders and superheroes are photographed gives the subject a place of power. Goldin is showing the audience that this person is proud to be an individual and is happy to be showing the world who they are.

Nan Goldin is one of my inspirations for this individual project because I love her portraiture work. She makes her subject the centre of attention, bringing them to life  and letting the audience see their story. I am going to use Goldin techniques in my upcoming shoot. I am going to spend time with the sitter before I photograph them. I am also going to let them express themselves through their own clothing and make-up, making sure the audience see the sitter for who they really are.

I have chosen to look at the work of sally Mann for my individual project because, Mann works a lot with using the environment around her to create her portraits. Sally Mann Mostly uses the outside elements when creating her stunning portraits. In my own project I plan to also use the outside elements and combine these elements with my sitter. Sally Mann does not travel to great distances for the locations of her photographs, she quite often uses the surroundings in her back garden for the background of her photographs. Mann uses medium formant or large format cameras to create her photographs, Mann also always uses black and white film. I love the effect of the black and white photographs. By using black and white film I think it gives Sally Mann’s photographs a real ageless quality, the black and white helps draw the audiences attention to the sitter in the photograph. Black and white takes away the distractions and lets the audience focus on the detail in the sitters expression. It makes the audience look into the soul of the model as our attention is drawn to the models eyes rather than being distracted by colour in the background or foreground of the image.

This photograph the ‘Candy Cigarette’ is one of Mann’s most well known images and one of my personal favourites. I love the girls expression and her body language, this really makes the photograph into a story rather than just an image. I really like the way the light hits the girl so draws the audiences eye towards the main character in the photograph, I think this is a really effective use of lighting and is something I am going to try when creating my own photographs for this individual project. I can learn a lot and take a lot of inspiration from the work of Sally Mann and am going to take this into consideration when completing my own project for this unit.

For this individual project I was asked to create a website displaying my work and a new body of work which is up to me to create. I am going to focus on portraiture for this unit so I am going to look at photographers who work in and outside the studio. I am going to at portrait photographers such as Damon baker, nan Goldin, David Bailey and Sally Mann. I will also be doing a lot of research into other photographers websites to gather ideas for my own website. By researching these elements I hope to gain inspiration that ill carry me through the project and give me some good end results.

This unit is different from my previous projects because I have been given complete freedom to pursue whatever topic I come up with. I decided to stick to my strong points as a photographer for this unit, I want to work with creating some environmental portraits as this is an element of photography I really enjoy. I like creating environmental portraits because I love working with different people. I feel that as a photographer I can really draw out the personality of the sitter in an environment outside of the studio. I find when working in the studio the sitter often feel under pressure to make the right faces and sit the correct way, being out of the the studio helps the sitter relax and really come out of their shell. I have a number of locations in mind one of those being Leybourne Lakes. I want to shoot at Leybourne lakes as this is somewhere I have never ben before so I want to test my skills as a photographer to shoot at a location I know nothing about.

I am also planning to conduct a few portraits in the studio, it will be interesting for me to compare the results of the sitter in a studio environment to the sitter being outside. I am not following a strict set of rules for this project, I find I work better when I have more creative freedom so I am giving myself lots of time to come up with ideas and improve on my initial ideas. Overall I am looking forward to this unit as I have never been given the chance to have so much creative freedom in an assessed unit.