My PHOTOMARKT DVD Portfolio

Exhibition Opening!

A very successful opening with the Sheriff of Nottingham...

Exhibition

Above is my display at the exhibition.  I am happy with it, i was trying to decide if it would be better just stuck on the wall, it was annoying me that they weren't straight and that the portraits kept on slipping so that it wasn't level.  It may have been smarter if it was on the wall but i think that it fitted well within the market displayed as it is.  I liked that people could walk around it and i was a lot happier with it once we opened up the other shutter and rearranged the space a bit as i feel it all worked better together. 

Display

When my final images were chosen as far as i was concerned i had broadly 2 options for the display...

1. To frame or mount the images and put them on the wall, either in a long line or 2 rows of 3.

2.  The market had the right ceilings for us to suspend the work ad have it floating.

I decided on the second option because i think it added another dimension to the piece.  I made structures so the each set of three was clamped in a triangle shape and then suspended at head height.  This means that the viewer can walk around the images, interact with it and experience the different sides a person can have.

Photos to follow shortly....

Help Needed-Second Set of Images

My second set of images will consist of the stereotypes mixed up with locations.  However i am struggling to cut it down to one images from each, I have an idea of which ones to pick but it would be good to get other peoples opinions.  There are more on the flickr as well (link on the side of my blog) if you think none of these are suitable.  In the set i am going to have one image of the hippy, one of the goth and one of the chav.  This is the set that i may alter after my shoot on tuesday.

So, i am going to number the images and if people could put their favourites in the comments section that would be extremely helpful! It will either clarify my initial thoughts or throw in some other interesting ideas!

Hippy:

1a

1b

1c

Goth:

2a

2b

2c

Chav:

3a

3b

Final Images

So for the exhibition i am going to produce two sets of images, one set of 3 and one set of either 3 or 4.  I still have one shoot left to do so i may need to add in those photos.  I have come up with a few quite different options for displaying these two sets of images but all with be revealed at a later stage...!

The first set of images will be three that i took in my garden (see below) if anyone thinks there are others on my flickr that would be better please say!

Help!!!

I am struggling to decide how many photos i should get print, which ones etc!! Any suggestions or just feedback on people favourites would be very helpful!!

Chav vs. Art Gallery

This morning i went up to the castle art gallery to take some pictures as a chav! I was fairly pleased with them, i think i prefer the photos that i took of the chav in the garden, maybe because they are in your face.  Here are three of my favourites...

Flickr

Have a look at my flickr, the rest of the photos are on there and let me know if you prefer any of the others!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24002965@N08/

Straight Portraits

As well as doing each stereotype in an odd location i thought whilst i was dressed up i would do a basic straight portrait of each in my garden!  I think for some of the characters these have really worked, but for others they haven't! Conveniently though the ones that i think worked just in my garden are the ones that i didn't feel worked in their own locations and vice versa.  

I now have a least one photograph of each stereotype that i love, whether that be in my garden or in another location.

Here are a few of the portrait from my garden that i feel work.....

Goth vs. Tanning Salon

Similar to the Hippy Photos i felt these came out very well and the best so far.  They have a closer crop which i prefer and i love the UV light from the sunbed (hopefully it's obvious its a sunbed!)

There are lots of these that i love and that i think really work but here are just a few...

Hippy

I was really impressed with the Hippy photos! The tighter frame works a lot better, although i hope it's obvious i'm meant to be a hippy!  Here are some of my favourites, the rest are on Flickr...

So far...

So, so far i have done some shots being dressed up as a geek and a skater.  I am quite pleased with how these came out but would quite like some comments so i can go back and refine them! I know i need to work of the focus and the framing of the person, just starting to get the hang of self-portraits and being in two places at once!! 

I think the ones i have planned for next week will be more interesting and better than these ones.  Coming up we still have a goth, chav, hippy and posh person, you'll just have to wait and see where they're going to be!

Meditating Skater

Geek vs. Sport

My first photos! The rest of them are on flickr, they are all quite similar just with slight variations (eg. feet positions) but here are a few that i think stand out....

You Tube Video

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is a photographer who dressed herself up as different people, photographing herself in a range of different costumes.  She is best known for her conceptual portraits.  The artist poses in different stereotypical female roles, these vary from an immature schoolgirl to an attractive seducer and from a glamour diva to a caring housewife.  Sherman uses her own possessions as props in these images.  She does this to show that women adopt several roles and identities depending on their circumstances.  Her work encourages self-reflection in the spectator.

My project may sound similar to Sherman's work but looking at stereotypical teenagers.  However i am also going to mix up the locations, so put these stereotypes where you would not expect them and with possessions that do not fit their character in order to disturb the viewers gaze.

'I' by Alexa Wright

Alexa Wright in her project titled 'I' digitally manipulated self portraits and superimposed disabilities to make different versions of herself.  About this she says "On realising that all the portraits are of the same person i hope the viewer will begin to question their reaction to seeing a disabled body, and to perceive the disability as separate from the person." 

(Avaliable at http://www.alteregoinstallation.co.uk/main_site/ipg.html)

This is similar to what i want to do with my project.  I can also draw inspiration from Alexa Wrights work from the way she composes her photographs.  I like the subtlety of her images and the openness of them.  She uses large open spaces and gives her figures a lot of room to breathe.  

In my images, like in hers i want the weirdness about them to be subtle.  I intend to look completely different as i dress up as each person but i want the subtle repetition of my face to be a disturbing factor.

Disturb the Gaze...My Intentions...

In this project i want to disturb the viewers gaze.  I want to make aesthetically pleasing images but also make them confusing and disturbing.  This disturbing and confusing aspect may not be completely apparent at first.  I want to take 4 or 5 (or however many i have time to do) different types of teenagers, eg. geek, chav, goth and i want to photograph them in the opposite location to where you assume they would be.  For example i will photograph a chav in a stately home.  i want to spend a week on each type so that i can try a few different things with each one.  I want a variety of shots as well so i will do some wide shots but some close up tight shots with just bits of detail of the type of person and where they are, eg. a barbie girl holding physics books.  

"The images are slightly disturbing, but not enough to make us angry because they are so seductive"

DOY, G., 2005. Picturing the Self: Changing Views of the Subject in Visual Culture.  London: I.B. Tauris & Company. p. 100

Self Portraits:

To disturb the gaze even more when these pictures are seen as a set i will be doing them as self-portraits.  I will appear in each one as the main subject dressed up as a different stereotype in each.  I think this will make the project more interesting.  It can represent the fact that you can judge someone by what they look like but you don't know what they are actually like.  If people who didn't know me saw me dressed as a chav or a goth they would, quite rightly, automatically assume that's who i was.  Seeing me, the same person, featuring in all the portraits dressed as all these different types of people could also represent the multiple personalities people, especially teenagers, have depending on who they are with, where they are and what they're doing.

Stereotypes

With this project i want to think about how we see/read different groups of people in society and where we think they belong.  People see what they want to see in people and therefore as a result people are separated into categories.  To do this i am going to focus the teenage group in society because i think that is when people are at a time in their life when they are most influenced by trends and the contrasts between the different stereotypes is more apparent.  To do this i need to learn to understand gestures and the way people walk and dress.