Reflective Blog

 Crit.

The crit where I showed these 5 photographs I feel went well. The comments that were said were very varied and versatile. Video games were a strong comment of them seeing as the female look like she is CGI and had just stepped out of a video game. The male gaze was referenced due to her looking almost naked which is visually pleasing to the male gender, However the female predatory gaze is the counter argument because in some of the photographs she looks like she is very intimidating, especially in the face on photographs because she looks more scary and these photographs were the most popular.  One person said "The one where she has her eyes looking down I would hang only that photograph on my wall, because it gives a very classical context with a glamour pose." These photographs gives a sense of strong female Hollywood figures i.e Jennifer Lawrence who in fact played mystique in X-men who was blue (it was said that my model looked like her too.). The guessing of the context about these photographs were pretty much on point, I had comments saying that she was a siren and a mermaid, relating to dark seduction and even referencing the film Pirates of the Caribbean. They said that the photographs were vibrant, the use of bright colours were good and it seemed authentic.

I feel like these comments have affected my work in a positive way and will definitely help me with future photoshoots.

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Niel Drabble Talk

Having a one-to-one tutorial with Neil Drabble helped me highly seeing as LCF is a place for where i am applying to. he told me that i should really try to expand my practice and dive into doing collage with photographs/ using mixed media. he told me tips for the interviews such as knowing certain magazines and contemporary fashion photographers such as collier schorr and hedi slimane, he told me that fashion photography isn't always about setting up in a studio but could be taken on the streets.
For my portfolio Neil suggested that i should carry prints in a box, so that it is presented professionally so that whoever is interviewing me knows that i take a great deal of care into my work. He told me that i should look at some magazines and photographers, Hot N cool, POP and Arenarong were the magazines that he told me to look at, and the photographers were; Ryan Mickgimly, Roe Ethridge and Peter Beard.
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Close Ups.

These two photograph are from a studio shoot that i did a couple of weeks ago, i wanted to do more with them so i cropped them in photoshop and started to edit them. In my past black and white photography they are usually light and i have edited them so that the offset in exposure is pretty high so that it lightens the picture, however i watched to change things so i made it highly contrasted and under exposed it ever so slightly giving it this dark detailed effect. These photographs are effective because of the emotion and body language it evokes, his eyes seem like they are longing and empty, his arms and hands look like they are trying to cling onto something, maybe trying to hold onto someone for love or trying to hold himself because of his sadness and is trying to pick himself up to make himself whole again and happy, but it is open to any interpretation a viewer makes.

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Re-editing.

These photographs are from an old off-course project of mine. i wanted to re-edit them due to the fact that i now know more on photoshop and my skills have improved. Again i used the idea of under exposing the photographs to make them detailed instead of making them lighter, doing this effect really has an emotional showing through the photographs, it has made them more sharp and in your face. the location of this shoot was very effective and worked really well, the backgrounds almost give a textured feel to the images evoking the idea that the viewer could possibly touch the photographs and actually feel the roughness. making my subject faceless has taken a new light on portraiture. I used photoshop to edit these photographs and most importantly used the brush tool to create the scratched out face, making my subject nameless, faceless and feel like she has no identity. These images can relate to the word 'Gothic' due to the clothing she is wearing (all black, lace) and the way i have edited them. i feel like the subject has just stepped out of a horror movie.

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Photoshoot.

I did this photoshoot on top of a supermarket carpark, This shoot was a very spontaneous idea as i had no intention of taking photographs that day, but having a talk with Neil Drabble helped me because he taught me that you dont always have to set up a fancy photoshoot in a studio to photograph clothes, it can be anywhere at any time, even if what the subject is wearing is considered not very fashionable or sloppy. these photographs are black and white because my work is better looking when its in black and white. i edited them in photoshop and i used a gradient tool with whitie and dragged it over half of the photographs, this is effective because it gives a sense of light leaks from the sun making the photographs look vintage and retro.

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The Gothic outcomes/Crit

These photographs have been my strongest pieces of work. Neil Drabble really influenced the idea of this because he told me that the 'in' thing at te moment and what universitys really love is collaging, sticking pieces of other photographs on top of another photograph creating depth. Damien Blottiere was a heavy influence on the first two photographs because he too did collaging and has made many successful pieces. The crit on these photographs was very interesting and i learned alot. Many people said that the top two photograph were abstract, different, creepy, and had a narrative. the narrative of the work is that the top two photographs evokes the idea that there is a person within a person, that they are just masks they are holding up. there person inside is putting on a mask which then leads to the bottom photograph of her becoming that specific person. The top two were referenced as being a skull, and i agree, having missing features gives the illusion of the bones in the face.These photographs work well for my final outcome of 'Gothic' seeing as it is creepy and scary, which is what being Gothic is all about. i had alot of positive and strong comments about these photographs which has made me think to progress and push collaging into my work further.

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The Portrait Outcomes.

These photographs were taken in a studio, i had the idea of using a male model because i wanted to take a risk because i would usually only use a female model. I based these photographs around looking like they should be the cover or inside a magazine showing off clothes. i put him in a suit and tie because i wanted him to look sophisticated and proper. The vibrant colours in the first two photograph really stand out, this is good because it really catches the eye of the viewer, and for the boarders i made the colours complimentary with each other (orange and blue, pink and green) giving a high contrast effect. the black and white photographs give a real sense of emotion, it creates sadness which is also due to his body language, looking down could be a sign of hopelessness. Having a patterned boarder gives life and adventure to the photograph, instead of it being plain and boring. these photograph work really well as my outcomes for 'Portrait' because that's exactly what these photograph are, Portraits with my own twist.

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