End of Unit Evaluation

Now at the end of Unit 2 I can confidently say that I am happy with the work produced over the exam unit of this AS year. Throughout the exam unit, I used the skills which I learnt during the first half of the year in the Formal Elements topic to produce work of a high standard. This exam unit tested my creative ability and allowed me to work independently, planning my own shoots, choosing my own photographs and deciding how to edit my photographs.

For my exam unit I chose to study evidence and with the initial idea of 'the evidence that we (as people) leave behind' in mind, I began my shoots. In my first shoot I tested this idea of human evidence by photographing my model smoking a cigarette which not only leaves evidence outside due to the cigarette butt but leaves evidence in her body, a decrease in lung capacity and a rise in craving. However, for shoot two I felt it best to try the other side of evidence before deciding on a definitive theme to study; this lead to my choice of natural evidence such as the effects of weathering where I went out into town to photograph rain damage and rust etc. For shoot three I returned to my study of human evidence but instead of damage began to look at evidence like makeup finger prints and lipstick stains, otherwise known as accidental evidence, this lead me to think of lipstick stains on coffee cups, coke cans etc. On the the theme of makeup evidence I began to question what is the evidence of makeup and food or on food? In shoot four I focused on a bacon sandwich and a tea cup, photographing the lipstick stains and the teeth marks, two types of evidence in one photograph. In shoot five, the reference here fell heavily on my research, I'd discovered a love of lipstick stains on coffee cups in previous shoots however this time I wanted to mimic my research but also my previous shoots by incorporating smoking. 

However, shoot six was a jump into unknown territory in keeping with my theme, I decided while I enjoyed looking at the evidence makeup leaves I wanted to look at the evidence of makeup in action which is why I focused on the way eight different models styled their eyes individually. This lead me on to my next shoot which did the same, except it focused on the way identity can be shown through makeup therefore I had my model come up with 12 different poses which they thought showed their personality whilst wearing their own choice of lipstick. Shoot eight was where I moved on to the idea of a routine, the evidence of routine and how routine can control you, the candid shots show the model applying makeup and show a transition throughout and all the components needed to  complete their routine. This leads me on to shoots 9 & 10 which are the same shoot (one a self portrait shoot and the other with a model) As I gave myself this idea I wanted to show my own routine therefore used myself as a practice run before shoot 10 where I focused on my model performing a transformation and going through each stage. Finally, my exam shoot was a long time coming for me, I was excited and the idea behind it is about the way personality effects everyone and partly to do with how we, as a society feel pressured to look, feel and behave a certain way. The beauty industry pressures women and men everyday to conform to their own ideals and my final shoot was a representation of a rebellion against societies 'ideals' where I smashed up makeup to shatter the 'perfect image' and painted half a models face in order to prove you should be who you want to be. 

To conclude, I have immensely enjoyed this unit and feel as though i was able to improve not only my physical skills over the last three months but also my intellectual skill and my levels of creativity. I have learnt how to develop my own ideas from paper to reality and how to develop a whole concept from the basis of one word. 

Final Pieces

INSERT COFFEE CUP RESHOOT HERE ------

Portfolio Powerpoint

Exam Plan

 Shoot

One shoot requires me taking makeup palettes, lipsticks, powders, nail varnishes and gels and destroying them and ruining them creating a mess of makeup on a plain white background. However, I will take photographs of the makeup beforehand to show a before and after shot of how the makeup looks before destruction. (Crushed makeup example…)

Then, as a second element to this shoot I plan to do a completed makeup look on one half of the face and then messy makeup on the other half of the face sort of like a physical representation of a broken routine and a physical representation of the ruined makeup from the previous shots. I will either do half the face messy makeup or do half a painted face such as a skull like this which is known as sugar skull makeup…

My Own Practices of Make-up...

Connecting Essay 5

Internet Photograph:

 My Photograph:

In the photograph from the internet that I chose the photographer has zoomed right in and focused on chunks of the powdery make-up rather than the powder itself. This idea is evidence of a beauty routine and almost like a rebellion against what society makes us think we should do. The idea of crushed make-up throws many people into disarray due to the fact it costs such a high expense therefore crushing it is almost like telling the beauty industry that society doesn't need instruction of how they should look, think and behave.

In my own photograph that I took I chose to keep fairly zoomed out in order to catch the splatters of powder at the edge of the frame almost as if it represents an explosion of powder, an explosion of rage against the beauty industry. I used two contrasting colours of powder in order to show the many different things that we apply to our faces in order to recreate the looks that the beauty industry convince us that we have to replicate. I wanted to crush make-up for my photography shoot in order to express the opinion that make-up shouldn't be compulsory.

These photographs are both similar because they both focus on powdered substances which have been crushed and destroyed however the first photo shows more of the compact shapes still in tact whereas the second photograph is literally almost completely crushed powder. A difference between my photograph and the photograph from the internet is that the photograph from the internet is taken from above and is much more zoomed in however my photograph is taken more from the front and zoomed out much more.

Connecting Essay 4

Internet Photograph: 

My Own Photo:

The internet photograph that I chose was a photograph of a starbucks cup which has a close up focus on the hole in the lid and the lipstick print, I chose this photograph from the internet in order to fit into my theme of identity and the way we as people leave our identity behind in the theme of evidence. I really like this photograph as I like the way the photographer has made sure the cup and the hand are in the photograph which makes the it more realistic.

In my own photograph I took a photograph of a coffee cup with a phone on a bench, again evidence of literally just 'being' the way we casually plonk our coffee cups down and our phones on tossed to the side, fag ash flicked in another direction. I chose to take this photograph from this angle because I liked the way that the bench added depth to the photograph however I still wanted the cup to be in the centre of the image.

The similarities of the internet photograph and my own photograph is obviously the subject, they both feature pink lipstick on coffee cups, they both signify evidence left on things by human presence, its forced evidence, the kind of evidence that comes from an action however not like a crime scene but almost like accidental evidence, just something that proves you were there, you were alive, leaving a mark on the world even if it is as tiny as a lipstick print.

Shoot 10: Evidence - Straight Images

Shoot 10: Evidence - Work Diary

Evaluation:

I think this session went really well, my aim was to photograph a makeup routine with every stage in order to create a multiple imagery of each stage. I really enjoyed this shoot because you could see the progress of the routine through the photographs. When I edited my pictures I decided to have them in the layout I chose because I thought it was reminiscent of a photo strip from a photo booth the way it progressed downwards. I also included some candid shots that I took while I watched her go through her makeup routine as I liked the natural effect they had. These are a few of my favourite unedited candids…

Progression:

Overall, I really enjoyed this shoot and found it fascinating to watch someone go through a whole makeup routine and apply every stage slowly, then photograph it along the way watching in the photographs afterwards the transformation taking place over and over again. I genuinely really enjoyed this shoot and I dont think I would change anything if I tried this again. Due to my enjoyment of witnessing routine this time, I want to do a shoot which focuses on the finished product so just a basic portrait shoot however I was considering incorporating some crazy makeup such as clown face paint or sugar skull/day of the dead face paint in order to make this more than just a portrait. 

Shoot 9: Evidence - Straight Images

Shoot 9: Evidence - Work Diary

Evaluation:

In todays shoot I decided to photograph myself in my morning routine, I set my camera up in front of me and photographed each stage of my make-up routine. This technique helped me to capture the before and after effect of my makeup plus a collection of routine photographs. I plan to edit them into a multiple imagery to show the routine and also do a before and after shot as well as a few candid shots in order to show the photographs off. I chose to do this shoot as it ties in with my previous shoots which focus on makeup and the way they change an identity, in my last shoot I planned to photograph the makeup routine in the studio however I thought doing a test run first was a good idea.

Todays Shots:

Progression:

Overall, I am really pleased with how this attempt at photographing routine went however if I had the chance to try it again I would photograph the in between stages of actually applying the makeup rather than after it has been applied. In my next shoot I plan to do this exact same idea of photographing a make-up routine however I want to do it as a studio shoot of someone else rather than self portraits. I will also photograph the in between stages of applying the makeup rather than just the after shot.

Joseph Szabo

Joseph Szabo is an American teacher, photographer and author who studied photographer in the sixties then taught photography in a Long Island High School from the early seventies to the late nineties and then at the International Centre of Photography in NYC since late in the seventies. Szabo used his teen-age students as models and subjects for the past twenty five years of his career and has managed to perfectly capture the ambivalence of that time of life. Due to the fact he practiced as a High School teacher for so long he knew how to handle his students pretentions, passions and confusions. Szabo was also able to understand how students acted up and put on certain behaviours and misbehaviours to shield or project how they were feeling. In 1978 Joseph Szabo's collection Almost Grown was published by Harmony Books and helped him receive many awards including a Photography fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

I chose to study Joseph Szabo because I love the way he translates the lifestyle of the youth he studies into his work, Szabo is aware of the background of all of his models which enables him to engage in a personal connection with them when he is photographing them, many of their photos exhibit this connection through the open-ness that can be witnessed by the viewers of the photographs once they are published.

 I chose this photograph as I believe Joseph Szabo has exhibited the loneliness of the teenage years of ones life in this image, the girl is left looking on and possibly wondering why and Szabo captures this by making none of the people the main topic of the photograph.

 I chose this photograph as it is a perfect exhibition of the hurry that  young children feel to grow up, they must be old before their time and sometimes this pressure comes from society or the media. Within a crowd this girl stands out as the one who will rebel, the one who demands that adulthood be upon her before she has really even hit her teenage years. The cigarette symbolises the smoking gun of a child who has grown up all too quickly.

I chose to study this photograph from Joseph Szabo's portfolio due to the fact that it shows the difference between the different types of students there are. In modern society it is recognised there are different types of learners.

I chose this photograph the focus on and to emphasize the element of love in teenage years and the importance of this in the teenage part of life. The composition of this photo leads the eye to the door and then to the couple behind the door frame which is the focal point of the photograph.

How I was Influenced...

Josepth Szabo was one of my influences for this topic due to the fact that he studies people, the way they act and their behaviour but also their thoughts and feelings, this links to my study of routine and why people stick to the various routines they have in life. Routines are so repetitive which is a formal element, and are a psychological habit of most human beings. The routine aspect of Joseph Szabo's work comes in when focusing on the routine of life, the things we do in every day life which contribute to us growing up and growing as people. Adolescence is a very important part of life which for most people flies by before they've even realised its gone however in this collection by Joseph Szabo it shows how much teens can focus on wanting to grow up too fast for example the relationship aspect and the picture which depicts the young girl smoking. 

Since studying Joseph Szabo I have decided that I am really interested in focusing on candid shots, I love capturing people just being completely natural and not forcing their actions. However I also love the black and white element to Joseph Szabo's photography and the way he applies lighter tones to his work rather than dark.

Bruno Metra & Lawrence Jeanson (duo)

Bruno Metra and Lawrence Jeanson are a photography duo who were fascinated with the idea that the media bombard society with images of others, usually people who are inaccessible to us, these images are imposed on us and they make us feel powerless to escape. The idea behind the ID projects that Metra and Jeanson worked on was to reflect the notion of identity; they invited each of their models to play a part in an experiment which involved them selecting and cutting out the face of another and placing the appropriate parts on their own faces. The faces, when transformed like this become a photographic art form that makes the audience take a hard look at their own individual identity. Each model in turn, defaces the other and then defaces himself/herself and this is an example of each person becoming the other by destroying their model. This is like a physical representation of how fragile our identities are as people, the identity of each person becomes visible or even tangible and they have become a blend over the process. In the modern society, the act of representation has taken over in the scale of importance and the edit is often more important than the original photograph to most people. 

I chose to study this ID Concept by Bruno Metra and Lawrence Jeanson due to the fact that part of my theme covers how the beauty industry encourages us to use makeup to change and transform our identities however I believe that this 'transformation' is just exploiting a false idea of who we think we are or SHOULD BE.

 I chose this photograph by Metra and Jeanson which follows their "ID Concept"  in order to show just how much people would change themselves if they had the chance, this woman chose an eye colour completely the opposite from her own.

 I chose this photograph because I find it very interesting how the model in this photograph has chosen a females feature rather than a males and also someone with the opposite skin tone and hair colour to him.

 I chose this photograph by Metra and Jeanson in order to show how some of the models tried to match all aspects of their faces rather than chopping and changing certain ones.

I chose this photograph to study in order to show how some of the models decided to match areas of their face while making sure other parts were entirely different.

How I was Influenced...

I was influenced by Bruno Metra and Lawrence Jeanson because of their sincerity to the topic of identity. I love the surrealist nature of their photography despite the fact it couldn't get more real in context, the unreal nature and aesthetic of the photographs makes it hard to picture that these are normal people exhibiting a physical example of how society force us to conform to the standards that they set. An example of something society should fight in the eyes of what they have imposed on us is this idea that there is a 'perfect' look for example an advert for a protein company in London recently asked Londoners if they were "beach body ready" next to an image of a thin girl however society fought back and women and men of all shapes and sizes declared that everyone is beach body ready no matter who you are or what you look like. This is a message similar to what Metra and Jeanson are trying to promote by saying that by making yourself look like someone else will not fix the flaws that you yourself see when you look in the mirror.

Since studying Metra and Jeanson I feel inspired to focus a lot more on bare faced models rather than models with pre-done makeup, I have an exciting idea which focuses on the transformation from beginning to end.