Photo Shoot

These are my favourite images from the shoot due to the composition and lighting. I really enjoyed the photo shoot as it was really fun and a good experience.

Poster style inspiration

Shepard Fairy

 http://www.esfrs.org/wedomore/spotTheDifference.shtml

 http://alidicello.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/field-journal-6-war-posters-now-and.html
James Montgomery Flagg

Inspiration... Man Ray

I am inspired by Man Ray to experiment with more photograms and to create words and letters with my hand, spelling "equality" to show the equality between black and white and they are just colours.

Inspiration... David Bailey

I am inspired by David Bailey's lighting technique of having the light shining down on the models face from slightly above and I will definitely experiment with this technique in my own work as well as try out black and white.

Inspiration: Rankin

I am inspired by Rankin and his use of lighting and colours and composition as it is all very natural but professional and effective. In my own work, I will experiment with both studio and natural lighting in my photos.

UCAS Design Your Future Fair

Yesterday, we visited the UCAS Design Your Future Fair. I wanted to talk to the three uni's closest to me: Manchester (MMU), University of Derby, and Staffs Uni. I wasn't keen on the sound of the Photography course at MMU as I felt as though the Photography man was rambling on about a lot of rubbish and I felt like it was more about conceptual photography/art and it wasn't for me.

I found out from Staffs and Derby that the course would require me to be in for about three days a week, which is fine with me since I would be driving every day. I like the sound of the Photography degree in both of these uni's but I think I'm leaning slightly more towards Staffs because of their links with industry and live project briefs.

That being said, I like the sound of the Commercial Photography degree at Derby, and the Foundation Degree in Applied Photography. The degree that I would like to do is the Foundation Degree. I think this is because it is part time, only two years and I could be working at the same time as doing it. I think that the course looks really good too as it is looking at how you'd apply the techniques to working and I feel like it would be a good degree for me.

Order of preference:

1. Foundation Degree in Applied Photography at Derby
2. BA Hons Photography in Staffs
3. BA Hons Photography in Derby
4. BA Hons Commercial Photography in Derby

Compare and contrast two artists

Rankin (left), David Bailey (right)

The artists that I have chosen to use for my comparison are Rankin (left) and David Bailey (right). They are both excellent portrait and fashion photographers and both photograph celebrities. However, they have different styles; Rankin photographs are in colour and tend to have softer lighting, with the exception of this photo, and David Bailey has harsher, brighter lighting aimed down at the model casting shadows underneath the nose, lips and cheekbones which is quite flattering. His photographs are also all in black and white and have high levels of contrast, further accentuating the lighting technique.

The compositions in the two artists' work are quite different too; David Bailey's photographs are usually very central, square and closeup (from shoulders upwards). Rankin has some similar photos but has more of a wide range of compositions, from full body shots like this one of Orlando Bloom, to quite extreme closeups, for example his beauty photos, hair photos, and some fashion photos.

PROJECT AIM

My aim for my project will be to create a poster/posters raising awareness of dyslexia and OCD as I feel as though these are both disabilities as they affect people every day, even though we can't see the disability, it is still there. I don't have personal experience of dyslexia but I feel as though I have a BIT of personal experience with OCD.

Ideas...

So I'm starting this blog post with no idea what I want to do and I'm hoping that by the end of it, I will have an idea, so here goes...

The strands of equality and diversity...

• Age
• Gender and status
• Race
• Sexual orientation
• Faith and belief
• Disability
• Gender identity
• Socio-economic status

The subjects that pop into my head straight away are disability, race, gender, and age.

My chosen specialism is photography...

I still don't have a clue.......

Disability:

• Not every disability is obvious, can't always see them
• Bullying
• Name calling, people don't know that they have something wrong with that person that is being bullied
• Mental disability
• OCD
• Dyslexia
• Visual impairments
• More obvious disabilities, it's not their fault, sympathy

Race:

• Colour of skin
• Should be treated as equals
• Slavery, disgusting
• The only thing that is different is the colour of skin, we are all humans and the same, slavery shouldn't have happened
• Modern day slavery

Gender:

• Women are inferior?
• Freedom to work and get an education
• Women in other countries can't get an education
• Domestic abuse
• Forced marriages

Age:

• Stereotypes
• Young people=bad
• 'Hoodies'
• Moral panics

Overall:

• We all SHOULD be treated the same
• But is it ever going to happen?
• There will always be the division between races, men and women, young and old people, disabled people and non-disabled people
• It would only happen in a perfect world
• As long as there are people who do fill the stereotypes (for example, a young person that fills the stereotype of being a threatening person) we will continue to judge and stereotype.

Outcome ideas:

• Poster
• Article
• Photojournalism
• Series of photos that tell a story

Poster:

• Can't always see the disability
• ie dyslexia, OCD, ADHD
• Photo of a person with dyslexia and text about how you can't see the disability or words that bullies use
• The model holding up the words? The words using different techniques, monoprinting, transfers, etc

Photos:

• A series of photos of things we should be thankful for, food, water, clothes, home, bed, tv, education, family
• Compare to someone in another countries equivalent to this
• Don't know how I'd include other techniques in this

Still finding this very difficult... Don't know where to start or how I can include the techniques from the workshops...

Liverpool Homotopia Exhibition

      

I really didn't like this exhibition, I didn't quite understand what it was about. Maybe because I wasn't in the best of moods anyway that day, but either way I was a bit disturbed by it and my initial reaction was "right... okay". I especially wasn't keen on the photography, especially of the photos with men in corsets and women's lingerie, I found it very strange.

That aside, I did like the lighting in the photographs as it made them look quite interesting. And I did really like the painting techniques in the paintings, as a painter myself I can really appreciate the time that the artist put into the painting and the beautiful blending, it was very smooth and perfect.

I don't feel as though the exhibition was useful to me because I can't relate to it at all and is not the type of theme I will use for my project.

Transfers

I enjoyed this session quite a lot because I like the techniques, they're simple but effective. The techniques included:

 

Lazertran

Emulsion transfer

Heat transfer paints

Sellotape

 

I can't choose a favourite as I really enjoyed all of them. I may use them in my project but I am not sure how as I don't have a clue what I'm doing yet because I'm really struggling with it.

8 Illustrations

Over the half term, I was set a task to do 8 illustrations of my favourite things. The 8 favourite things I chose were favourite animal, food, place, item of clothing, possession, shoes, music, and pet aversion. I started out doing each one in the style of a different artist and I feel as though they all ended up looking the same and I didn't like any of them, I don't like the way they turned out, I think its because they were rushed.







In the end, I went with the cartoon-y style as that was my favourite to do as I enjoyed using the marker pens. I think it turned out ok, but I don't feel like it reflects how long I actually put into it as it still looks rushed, when it actually took hours. So overall, I don't feel like it was very successful.