Final images

Still life final image 

I went and did my research for still life and then went and captured some of my own still life photography.

I went out and captured this image of a mannequin. I controlled the lighting by deciding to use a flash light to illuminate the subject and dimmed the natural lighting of the room. I also changed the background to make sure the subject was the most dominant thing of the photograph, and played around with the camera settings to ensure that I got the best photo possible. I found the texture of the background interesting which is why I chose to keep it instead of altering it.

Because I joined photography late, the cameras available for me to use were of significantly lowers specs than others, so for next time I will go to a camera workshop and loan a better camera so I can get a higher quality image.  Other than that, the process went smoothly and I now have the necessary skills needed to be able to take a good still life photo.

Final image photographs: 

Final image concept

Young people and politics are never seen as something that goes together. Adults think young people are apathetic, too lazy or just simply too dumb to vote. Politicians never think to target young people, as they think they will do nothing to improve their statistics. Is this view true though? As a young person, I don’t think it is. I’ve watched my friends have long debates on the matter. I’ve watched young people at political rally’s up and down the country. I believe that young people are actually one of the most influence groups in the country, and that their vote counts as this is the one that helps shape the future for them. I also believe politics has the power to either divide or join us together. To show this in photography form, I decided to gather some students and get them to write down on a sign who they voted for and why- thus showing their political stance and proving to the world that young people do care and they do have a voice when it comes to politics. I wanted this to be done in the form on portraits of each person as this seemed the best way to show it.

Influences

I looked at many portrait artists when doing this project, but one that really stood out to me was Diane Arbus, who was a portrait photographer who operated in New York city from 1950-1971. Although her work is not linked with my project in terms of the political theme, her images evoke a sense of uncertainty within me, a sense of wanting to know more about the subjects and their lives and this was one thing I would have liked to recreate with my own images. Diane Arbus liked photographing people who other people deemed “flawed” and from this she created a gritty, raw, but real and honest look at the streets of New York. Her photography inspired me as it all the images she took seem to tell a story- I’m not just looking at a photo of a person, I’m looking at a unique portrait of what it was like to exist in society at that time and place. Her images always bring a feeling of intrigue with them, a feeling of not being satisfied with what is simply shown in the image, of wanting to know more.

 

Here are some examples of images she took:

(images from her book- Diane Arbus, Diane Arbus)

Her use of black and white colouring within her portraits is what inspired me to edit my portraits this way. Black and white seems to be one of the cause of the intrigue that comes with her images to me- the lack of colour just makes the images seem all the more mysterious. From looking at her images I also liked how spontaneous some of her images feel, they make the subject appear more candid and real. This is something I thought about when taking my own images and made sure to take a few photo’s- some when the subject was not expecting it to make them seem more relaxed and less “posed”

Diane Arbus’s style is said to be “Direct and Unadorned, a frontal portrait cantered in a square format. Her pioneering use of flash in daylight isolated the subjects from the background, which contributed to the photos’ surreal quality” (Fox, Catherine. “Snapshot/Diane Arbus: True Portrait Lies Outside Film.” The Atlanta Journal–Constitution Dec 03 2006 ProQuest. 2 Mar. 2017)

 

Alternative images:

Photography is all about trial and error, and in my case, there was a lot of error. Some of the photos came out not in focus, the subject looking away, issues with lighting etc. However, it was through this error that I managed to create my final images. I had to move the lights a couple of times to get the right amount of exposure- in some of the earlier shots the subjects appeared very dark and shadowed, a look I did not want.

When choosing my final images, I went with the ones that looked the most aesthetically pleasing to me- the ones that were most in focus and that showed the subjects in the best light. I then edited them in photoshop to fine tune them. I wanted to make the photo’s black and white as I feel this made the pictures look more intriguing and dramatic, and was in the style of Diane Arbus. I also wanted to edit out any creases shown in the background material and photoshop allowed me to do this.

Reflection:

If I could redo the whole project again, I would have some students from different university’s involved, and people from different political parties involved. This is something I did try to organise while working on the project, however no one seemed available to come to a shoot. This to me would show diversity within my project and make the “divide” theme a little more obvious. However, the project did offer me an opportunity to talk to people about politics and put ideas out there about how important voting is and how young people have a voice and a say in how the country is run. I feel politics is a very interesting subject and there are many roads I could have taken with this project, each with their own benefits and drawbacks.

The final images all work well together I believe as they are aesthetically similar, and the composition, lighting and other visual elements remain the same in all five of the photos. There are some things however that I would like to change if I got the chance- one of them being the position of the subjects as I feel that they are all not perfectly centred and this makes the pictures appear kind of skewed and distorted. In terms of their overall “look” however I am pleased with the images I got, and am satisfied with the overall outcome of the project.