Influence of research and preparatory shoots:
After having received the
exam paper and immediately choosing the subheading of ‘Personal Opinions’ I had
a multitude of ideas about photographers and possible shoots relating to gender
that I could evolve into a final series.
My research mainly stemmed
from already known photographers and from delving further into online
photography exhibitors such as ‘Girls by Girls’; this aided me towards focusing
more specifically on feminism and explaining that it realistically refers to
gender equality rather than gender superiority.
Phebe Schmidt and Sarah
Maple, and some elements of Amanda Charchian, served as my biggest inspirations
during the preparatory shoots as I intended to employ similar techniques such
as highly saturated hue backdrops with either a selection of inanimate objects
connoting gender or subjects of various genders. It was my original intention
to continue with the vibrant backgrounds even in my final outcomes although, as
I discovered, the different colours can appear too tonally dark and
occasionally patchy with regions of over-exposure and under-exposure. Therefore,
I have developed towards a simple backdrop with the vibrancy, hue and colour
saturation coming from the subject’s costumes and props.
Furthermore, the
photographer research that I conducted on graphic artists under other exam
sections, which however did relate to my chosen topic, such as Barbara Kruger
and Jenny Holzer provided me with the idea of incorporating text to more
explicitly convey the meanings of my work. I did not develop this idea until
the technical experiments when I was pleased with the outcome and decided it
would be a good technique to continue over onto the final exam.
Additionally, looking back
now, the variation in Hannah Altman’s work was an inspiration to me as I
continued to witness the metamorphosis of my own work. The Change from highly
saturated colours to black and white and finally a simply toned white backdrop
became a significant part of my journey with this similar style employed in
Altman’s series ‘How To’ which is in extreme contrast to others including ‘What
You Left’ and ‘Everything Nice’.
Moreover, the brief experimentation
from the inspirational photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson lead me to enhance my
understanding of the decisive moment through documentary photography which made
capturing the best images in a short photoshoot period much easier.
Also, the collage of
images and text as previously mentioned allowed me to develop a photoshoot
where instead I merged two images side-by-side. This was the juxtaposition
shoot where objects were contrasted in a masculine and feminine light. This was
a key moment in the evolution towards my final series in which I would place
two portrait images side by side with the idea of combining text involved too.
Thus, this was a significant moment that crafted my final ideas.
This all lead towards a
final piece that was not a direct pastiche of another photographer’s work but
was of my own ideas around the sensitive issue of individuals personal opinions
in relation to gender. I was able to incorporate ideas and elements from
pervious shoots and photographer’s such as hue and saturation, portraits with
props and the formation of image and text which are all vital to the implicit
and explicit meanings connoted within my work.
Development and learning process:
During the process from
preparatory shoots to final series I learnt a variety of new techniques and
aesthetic ideas.
First of all, I learnt how
to technically manipulate the soft box lighting settings to ensure that my
photographs were well lit and neither under or over exposed. I also learnt how
to sync the channels on which the lights were firing to that of the flash on my
own camera that allowed me to achieve a more professional set-up in the studio period,
which dramatically saved time as well.
Additionally, I learnt how
to set-up my camera so that it would work well in cohesion with the lighting,
the set-up and the props or costumes. This involved revisiting my earlier
lessons in the importance and roles of aperture, shutter-speed and ISO. I now
feel that I am able to enter a studio environment and configure both my camera
and lights to work in unison to achieve a technically correct or pleasing final
image.
Moreover, aesthetically I
have come on a journey lead by a multitude of inspirations. First of all came
the comical, saturated aesthetically colour themed works of many photographers
on the ‘Girls by Girls’ website including Jesse May Fisher, Kiele Twarowski and
Lydia Metral who are all featured in my artist research. The filters and
appearances of the photographs all work to create an extremely aesthetically
pleasing final outcome which inspired me to experiment with specific colour
schemes in my final piece. I, however, interpreted this in my own manner and
included the idea of colour schemes by matching the typeface colour to that of
a significant prop used in each piece; I did this by using the Photoshop tool
of colour swatching.
Whilst the inspiration
came from myself and not another source such as a photographer or artist the
final composition of my work was an extreme aesthetic choice. In order to
present my work in a way that revolved around the magazine campaign style that
I aimed for I placed two images side by side with a stroke to represent each
page of the work. This originated from the element of my preparatory shoot
where I studied the juxtapositions of gender identities that I then developed
into the study of gender role socialisation and perception.
Success, strengths and weaknesses:
My success in the final
exam is not something that I myself can state but instead relies upon audience
perception. I am, however, able to comment how well I was able to conform to
the original hopes and expectations that I had for my final outcomes.
Whilst gender may not have
been the most obvious jump to be made from the sub-category of ‘Personal
Opinions’ it was a risk I felt necessary to express a large part of myself. The
socialist, left-wing feminist resides strongly within me and is the route of a
large selection of my personal opinions and not only that, it is something than
everyone in the world can relate to due to the gender socialisation process
that they have individually faced. Therefore, my success in addressing a wide
range of audiences could be understood as a success.
Furthermore, a strength of
mine was my ability to demonstrate a variety of techniques all relating to the
same theme of gender. I experimented with: studio prop photography,
portraiture, physical manipulation, technical changes and documentary. All of
these helped me in the final exam as I had tried the techniques and tools of
other photographers and was able to implement them. For instance, the decisive
moment transcend the directly related documentary photography and allowed me to
perceive when was the best moment to capture the character being created by
each portrait subject.
However, an area for
improvement would be the experimentation with different background colours. My
anticipation to accommodate the ideas of Schmidt and Maple lead me to attempt
backdrops of various colours; I soon discovered that this arose a few issues
such as tonal variation.
Another weakness of mine
is, my early desire to continue with a single idea from preparatory shoot until
the final outcome. My ideas only begun to change after the photoshoot based
upon men and women’s work where I then delved into the provided exam
photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson and practiced with documentary photography
which had previously been a favourite of mine.
Although, an area where I
was successful was continuing to change and develop in the face of adversity
during specific photoshoots. There were a number occasions where lighting,
backdrops and props caused aesthetical errors and I continued making amends
afterwards as best as I could in the next photoshoot.
On the other hand, If I was
to again experiment I may have took into more consideration other gender
photographers and artists who I could have studied the works of. I was
extremely set on an individual idea for a long period that I disregarded some
intriguing gender responses from sources such as ‘Tumblr’ and ‘Girls by Girls’.
I could have worked in the style of female photographers from around the world
to study feminism in empowered women and how they interpret gender based upon
their socialisation process.
I believe that I could
have improved by diversifying my final work through different photographer inspiration
from around the world, practicing with artistic techniques in technical and
physical manipulation alongside my photography work and to have concluded with
a final series that empowered, challenged and motivated people about gender.
I feel that I was
successful in achieving a selection of
my aspirations within my ever changing ideas about gender but that I could have
improved it given more time and access to better equipment to achieve a more professional
appearance and aesthetic.
