Friday 6 May 2016

PRESENTATION OF FINAL IDEA & HOW THIS HAS PROGRESSED

Hidden Identity:

My passion is portraiture, mainly photographing children the reason for this is you as a photographer get to capture their essence. Children are natural, young, carefree and don't try to force expressions or emotions unlike adults, who force their smile for the portraits. They force something to how they think the perfect image is. This is one reason I prefer to photograph children. But... for this particular project I have changed my mind to go with using adults as my models. And also move away from my traditional approach to portrait photography. 

What does my idea communicate? What has changed in regards to my idea? 

My idea has changed slightly from my initial learning agreement, but still has the style and technique there which I had in the beginning. I will be still producing black & white, low key images using one main light. Choosing to do black & white, low key photographs I'm almost hiding the identity and taking away the smile. Using adults seemed more fitting than photographing children, trying to use kids would be like taking their innocence out of the image. By only using one light and lighting only parts of the image, wouldn't be as effective as using an adult. Most adults these days live their lives by hiding who they really are or trying to be someone/ something they are not. So by creating these dark low key images with the one light it will be like portraying their reality, living in the shadows of yourself. Concealing your true self from not only the world but most importantly you, yourself. Choosing to create my images in black & white I will be almost stripping the soul, like the darkness is their blanket to hide under and protect themselves. 


Who are my influences?

My influences are still the same Giacomo Brunelli & Sally Mann. Brunelli is such a talented photographer and his images are so striking. His series of self portraits are really significant to what I'm producing myself. Hes used shadows to create his portraits so you don't see actually see him just the outline black shadow. Which could also give you the same narrative as what I'm explaining to the viewer in my images. You can see them they are there but not as who you or they think.
Sally Mann is another one who again expresses her families identity through her intimate photographs of her children and family. Portraying a lifestyle which is not for everyone but people still live that way. Same as my concept not everyone is like this but quite a large number will walk through their doors at night and hang up their mask they have been wearing all day. Sad really but so true. 

How does this piece benefit my own practice?

My challenge is my lighting might not turn out as I want or vision in my own mind. So I'll have to play about with the light but I'll see how this turns out. Using only one light as a basic lighting set up will enhance my practice as a portrait photographer to create some more atmospheric scenes. The images I produce can go into my portfolio to give a little extra to clients. Its not something I usually do I'm more traditional in my portraits, so this will help with my portfolio also challenge me as its out my comfort zone. 

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