Final Images-Skin Equality

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This was the idea behind my final images…

I wanted to carry on with the half portraits I had done of myself because I really liked how they came out. I liked the hair on my shoulders and the lack of detail, and the mystery created by the absence of a face. My images are naked but in a subtle way, showing only part of my body. They are showing that every part of your body can be beautiful, and each part is unique to ourselves and show our personality and identity. This project is more about finding my identity. Sometimes I feel like I am invisible in the outside word, there are too many people and I cannot stand out. Sometimes I feel my work can’t stand out either. But photographing myself without any distractions, just photographing my hair on my shoulders, makes me stand out because of the mystery, nobody knows who is the photograph. This doesn’t make people know me as a person, as you cannot see my face, but people can take ideas of how I look from the images.

I feel I achieved this and more. My images do show mystery, they draw your eye in because you do not know what you are looking at, at first. My images are the end of what was a struggle to get to photograph my self and others naked, this might not be shown in them but it is what I feel when I see them. I feel proud of all I have achieved, maybe now I will not be invisible.

My images could speak to many people. The ones who feel left out in peer groups at school, the ones who are bullied or picked on or anyone who feels lonely in the world. They can give anyone the feeling of being worth something, as I am trying to show how everybody is equal. We are all humans and should respect and treat each other as we would treat ourselves. So being able to photograph myself naked shows this. I do not believe my images can change anything, maybe the meaning doesn’t even come across, but this is how I felt when, and after I had taken them. This has been a journey, one that has had its low points and high points, but now I feel I really appreciate the human body for its form and how it makes us all unique and the same. It can show our identity or hide it away with clothes. We can change it with surgery, but we cannot change that we are all human, and are all equal.

If I had an exhibition of my work I would show it alongside the photographs of David’s shoulders. This would show the point of everybody being equal even more, as you do not know who he is because you can’t see his face. But these images are showing a relationship between me and the subject, this is shown by how close he allowed me to get when I was photographing, and how there is no tension.

This could be an ongoing project with me photographing more and people. But keeping the same pose and frame. So everybody looks equal but different as their skin will show their identity.

But I think I would keep the image of my hand on David’s chest in the series, for personal reasons and to show that you can have a connection to a person. One day they might be a stranger and then in a few weeks they might be a good friend or a lover. Life is one long journey, and maybe my photographs can inspire some people to create images of their own.

I have been inspired by the many photographers I have come across while researching and listening to lectures. I always have liked the renaissance sculptures and paintings. I wouldn’t say my work is like that, I am more celebrating the human form, like Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Haskins. I learnt how to showcase the body in my photographs to show personality and identity. Throughout the course I learnt how to get closer to a model for photographs and how to photograph myself. This really helped me to achieve the final images.

My writing to accompany my images if I had an exhibition of them.

Identity

Sometimes in this world it is easy to feel alone,

To feel invisible

But you must remember we are all connected,

By what we are

Your skin makes you unique, like a fingerprint,

Showing your personality

Your skin is also your identity it joins us as one,

We are all equal

We must respect each other to enjoy what we have,

We should feel safe

You must never feel alone because you have us,

The world is behind you.

This would be in a little frame on the wall, so viewers have to get in close to see it. I wrote it as if I am talking to them personally, I think this gives it a personal touch. I want the viewers to move in close to my images and writing, as they have a very strong meaning and I hope this is put across in my images. The title for my exhibition would be Skin Equality, not hinting at anything other than how our skin shows who we are, using the lines and the body’s ‘finger’print.

Picbod Final Images-Evaluation

At first I found the Picturing the Body course to be a bit daunting, being asked to go out and photograph a stranger for our first task really threw me in at the deep end. But after going about the tasks my own way I started to really enjoy it. I could focus on self-portraits, something I hadn’t done before and I found I really did like taking them. I also photographed other people, mainly when it was a set task, but I enjoyed this as well. I could get to know people like Zach a bit more than I had before, and forge new friendships. With David I already knew him very well, but I could use our relationship to be able to get closer to him and produce personal images. I think this is what made my images come out so well, the fact that David trusted me to photograph him and that I wasn’t afraid of asking him to pose how I wanted. This is made even easier when photographing myself, as I can pose how I want. It quite hard focusing the image when taking a self-portrait, but I eventually solved the problem with a piece of paper stuck to the wall I was using as a background. It helped me to focus the camera at the right spot.

My final images are a response to everything we have done throughout the course, from the set tasks to the lectures. They are self-portraits, but can also be anybody as they do not have a face. This means anyone can look at them and change who is in the photograph they are looking at. I really like to engage the viewer in my work, not laying out the meanings clearly, I want them to look closer and create their own meanings to my work. Of course there is a meaning behind my work, that can be found on the final images post but to write it all again here would just be wasting your time, as you do not have the images to look at on this post.

I chose to print three of my final images A3 size, because this is the best size to get people to step closer to the images when they are displayed. I did not want to put them in frames, as I feel this would detract from the detail in the images, and possibly ruin the meaning of equality and identity. I like how the prints look now, plain and simple, letting the image do the talking. This may be my own opinion, as I like photography to be about the photographs not how they are mounted or displayed. I know it can add to the photograph, and I love frames, but for this set of images I am keeping them as they are, so the body can the main centre of attention.

I was inspired by many artist that we looked at in the lectures and my own research. I especially liked the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, he inspired my images because of how he captured the tones and lines in the human skin. I wanted to capture the lines in my own skin and how they can show identity, like fingerprints, but showing the body print. I like how light shines off the skin in Mapplethorpe’s images I wanted to capture this in my own images.

Overall I really enjoyed this course and the work I have created because of it. I am certainly going to carry on taking self-potraits and portraits of other people. I suddenly have found I have an interest in photographing in black and white. I shall take this interest back to using 35mm film and maybe medium format.  I know the summer break will be a good time to experiment with Picturing the Body.

‘The Scientific Body’ Lecture

Lets start with the Vitruvian man.

Anatomy means cut-up.

Drawing the ideal-like the universe. Science, Ideal proportions, body, architecture, planets.

Museum of wax figures of the body, in the Duke of Tuscany’s House. Open to all people. Women shown as an object to be looked at.

Up to the 19th century most bodies that were cut up were bodies of criminals or those that had died. They were said to be evil bodies.

The museum’s figures laid the foundations for Italian horror films.

Emotions shown on the face. Reading the body and what it means. Use of photography.

James Crichton-Browne 1869 He was interested in madness and mental disorders. He worked in an asylum and studied mental disorders.

Wellcome Trust-Science+Art

Bodyworlds, and exhibition of bodies that have been preserved with plastic, they are 100% real.

Skylab has the Vitruvian man on their logo.

Victoria Lucas

Today we had a talk from Victoria Lucas who is the creator of Archive books. She first got interested in creating books of archived items after her granddad died leaving all of his found items to rot. So she decided to protect their memory by scanning them and printing the images into books which she then bound. Her books are tiny, A5 size, but I really did like them. The size of them made me look closer at the images and appreciate them more. I would have loved more time to look through the book she showed us of stamps with hearts on, and to see the detail in each one. I am interested to know how she scanned the images in so well, still keeping the vivid colours of the items.

She also told us about her many other projects, I was interested about them but nothing really stood out at me. The bronze insects were ok but not something I like. Her newest project ’12 Months of Neon Love’ seems like it is just trying to get business for her friends neon shop. But I liked the idea, how she will change it on every 14th of the month and how it started on the 14th of February. I like the idea of love, I do like photography that follows the theme of love, but neon signs to me are not art. As I do not like modern art very much as it shows lack of skill even though they made the frame for the sign themselves.

12 Months Of Neon Love

Failed Attempts

Her website.

Picturing the Body-My Own Hands

I wanted to photograph my hands because hands are unique to everyone. The fingerprints are all different. This makes everybody special in a small way and brings us together. I also like photographing hands, and did this as a side photo-shoot, just to see what I could produce with low light levels and no flash.

Picturing the Body-Final Images Ideas

I wanted to carry on with the half portraits I had done of myself because I really liked how they came out. I liked the hair on my shoulders and the lack of detail, and the mystery created by the absence of a face. My images are naked but in a subtle way, showing only part of my body. They are showing that every part of your body can be beautiful, and each part is unique to ourselves and show our personality and identity. This project is more about finding my identity. Sometimes I feel like I am invisible in the outside word, there are too many people and I cannot stand out. Sometimes I feel my work can’t stand out either. But photographing myself without any distractions, just photographing my hair on my shoulders, makes me stand out because of the mystery, nobody knows who is the photograph. This doesn’t make people know me as a person, as you cannot see my face, but people can take ideas of how I look from the images.

Print this one (looking away)

Print this one (straight hair contrast to others)

Print this one (looking to front, wavy hair)

Photographing Shoulders-David

Using my ideas for my final images I wanted to photograph another person using the same technique to see how they would look. I knew I wouldn’t get the hair in photographs of David, but I would get the texture of his skin and how it makes us individuals. I want to show that even though you cannot see his face, his identity is still shown with his skin. It can also be shown with his posture, because he knows me he was more open when I was taking the photographs, even though it was very cold when I was taking them.

Terry Shoulders

He is another photographer I came across while researching for my final ideas. I really love the grainy black and white feel to the images, they look old-fashioned and mystical. I find myself wanting to know more about the people in them. I am going to use black and white for my images, so these will be a good reference point for me.

His website.

‘Light, shadow, imagination… I prefer to reveal “another” space. One you may wish to enter. It is my desire that the images I create “touch you” and bring forth the beauty… the hidden…the discovery of this other space. These moments of stillness, quiet and simplicity lie within the world in which we live and within ourselves.’ Terry Shoulders peaking about his work.

Jim Crone

While searching for inspiration for my final images of my hair on my shoulders I came across fashion and hair photographer Jim Crone. Although he photographs models to show off their hair for hairdressers, I really liked how he lit the images and the different poses he used. I want my printed out images to be simple and clean showing only the texture of the hair on my skin, but I could try a few different poses for my online gallery, so he will be a big influence in my work.

Jim Crone is well-known and respected for his work in Hair & Beauty photography and is one of a group of photographers in the UK recommended by the Hairdressers Journal.

Jim specialises in travelling to salons and studios throughout the UK and abroad. Images from these shoots appear regularly in leading Hairstyle publications, product packaging and advertising campaigns.

His website.

Benjamin Chesterton

Benjamin Chesterton came in today to give us a talk about photography and telling a story with it. He also talked about one of Robert Gumpert’s images.

Robert Gumpert’s Image

My notes from the lecture are quite jumbled but I wrote down what I found interesting and meaningful when he was talking. I hope you can understand my notes.

He set up the DuckRabbit company . He is a radio documentary producer for the BBC on Radio 4. He creates humanitarian documentaries.

A body of work is a way to tell a story and connect to other people. Audio and visual work can capture the voice of the people. Keeping their memories and feelings alive in a photograph.

A still image can be interpreted differently, whereas a moving image has more context to it. But in a still image we explore it with our eyes and learn more as we look at it, creating a story as we go along.We decide where our eyes will go once we have started at the photographers focal point.

Limitation of photography, it can’t always give the truth, it can be manipulated and changed.

Photography can draw people into the story, and portraits can tell a story about that particular person.

Memory=Photography

Memory is resistance-capturing something

Photography can focus on telling people’s stories.