Identity and the portrait
For this project we were asked to research ideas on the concept of identity and the portrait holding ideas that would fit into a publication. From brainstorming ideas and trying to fit my ideas within a publication was quite tricky as I could'nt find a strong enough story with much thought and depth into it. I then started to research publications of what I like to read and what would appeal to me as this would help me more as to how I want the audience to be and what portrait idea I could do that would appeal to others.
Publication Research
Aesthetica is an arts magazine which inludes updates of all the arts like gallery updates, artists , new theatre performances and so on. It is a very well contructed magazine holding loads of story atricles, imagery and information. I think that my ideas I have come up with would fit into this publication as a photo story.
`Their target audience?
The photographers approach and details (website) ?
The sitters attitude?
Location used for shoot and its relevance to the picture?
camera format?
Have their images been manipulated in some form?
Tear sheets
Ideas
I had a few initital ideas where they were not really strong and would have been difficult to find a publication which it could be in and the ideas in itself were too vague and I wasnt that confident myself of where they could go or what story I could even write with it. I started brain storming again and thought of ideas that I am actually interested in and just looked at publications I like/would like to read. The whole art industry where it be painting,music, dancing, theatre inspires me and obviously photography being one of those I can use that to potray and document other aspects of art. For this project being identity and the portrait I feel as though theatre would be my best option to photograph a variety of different portriats. Possibly photographing actors behing the scenes, getting ready or before and after shots of them preforming.
I then researched theatres nearby so its accessable and easy to get to via bus as I don't drive. The guild hall is an events hall where all kinds of events take place. Such as music bands, cinema , vintage fayers, shows etc...I used to attend in my teenage years and go to gigs and actually work within a few room there taking part as as youth team organising events. I will email them tonight and see if its possible for me to meet up and discuss what I would like to do.
The everyman theatre in cheltenham is also an accessible place and easy to get to. I will also email them tonight and go in thursday to ask in person to see if its possible to photograph behind the stage or get more possible contacts if other people are interested. When researching some more I was thinking of possibly going into the story of "child stars" and documenting the actors who are children and how they fit in the acting with their daily school routines , also having a child of my own may help if maybe I take her to a few classes to meet everyone there and see what its all about and ask questions of what their lifestyle is like and converse with their parents also to see if it would be possible for me to document them.
I also had the idea of a circus theme as they are holding shows of the circus and something I have always wanted to do but looking into it more deeply it wont fit in with my dates of my deadline but it's deffinatley a future personal project I would like to do in the summer.
This is one of the preformances held at the everyman theatre which involves puppetry which would also be a good idea to strenghten my project with focussing on one show and the actors ( or puppets) .
Patrick Baldwin, a photographer where he documents theartrical preformences and does portraiture within the concept of theatre. Some of his work is a little controversal and images what you would expect of theatre and more images of the actual theatre performance itself. Having said that he has done some portraiture work which I can include in my research.
The kind of photography I would like to achieve in this project and the planning of the photoshoots in itself would be more the imagery you capture back stage and portraiture of the actors. However there are a few dis advantges to photographing theatre. It is very low lighting , the actors and the staff will be very busy and rushing around so it will be quite hard to get people to stop what they are doing unless I concentrate on when they finish the performance which is when everything is'nt as rushed and I can get some still organised protraits.
I didnt get any replies from any of my contacts of the everyman theatre so had to branch out some more ideas and think of something similar to do but would still fit and go with my chosen publication. I then went back to the idea of dancers as I had a few contact details in my note book when coming up with ideas. I then realised that my grandparents are regular dancers and go to dance lessons and group parties allot. I then got in touch with their dance teacher and asked if I could come along to one of the events and set up a portable studio in the corner of the room to take portraits of whoever wanted their photograph taken which would'nt come across to be intruding or inturppting their dances. But when I went everyone was lovely and didnt mind me taking photographs of them all dancing either. I had trouble with the syc lead and wouldnt trigger the flash so me not having an assistant either I had to almost think on the spot and try and hold the flash , focus, get the exosure correct and comunicating with the persons having their photograph taken. I developed the film today so hopefully my back up planned worked and I should get atleast a few shots correctly exposed. For extra practice and for my portraiture my grandparents also hire a hall out in stroud to practice their dance routines which they previouslly learn in their lessons. I then have been going along the past two weeks to photograph digitally and with the hasselblad to capture some shots with them. I developed them also today and will be doing all my scanning in the morning before the easter holidays so I can concentrate on the edits more research and looking for an improvement before one more shoot after the easter holidays.
After attending my grandparents personal dance sessions I then asked if I could attend a dance session where there will be more dancers that I could meet and potentionally photograph. My granny mentioned that they had a big dance that happens every other month or so where everyone from the dance lessons go to a hall in quedgeley on the friday night and dress up and gather together to dance from what they have learnt all together . I then decided to take out a few other pieces of equipment to light up the subjects as the enviroment would be set up in a dark dance hall with very little light other than a few disco balls.
I took out a light meter, a light stand for my speedlite, a syn cable to connect the flash to the lens of the hassel blad along with the longer extention sync cable , a reflective umbrella, my tripod and ofcourse the hasselblad.
In the session before class I had a little run through to make sure I knew exactly what to do . I arrived early to set up and to introuduce my self to everyone and explain what I was doing but I was fortunate enough that my grandparents were there and everyone actually came over and were actually interested and were more than up for having their photograph taken. I did a couple of test shots and to my dis advantage and which was very upsetting after setting everthing up the sync cable was not syncing and was broken even though I exchanged the first one for another one. So this meant I had to think on my feet and I did'nt have an assistant with me either so as there was no light I had to hold the camera whilst holding the flash whilst focusing and keeping the smaller sync lead out of the lens and talking to the people I was photographing. I knew that the nagatives will not be correctly exposed at all after all bouncing the flash it did'nt work and hardly any of my negatives were exposed. This was a shame as I had everything organised and it was all down to the sync cable not working. But I had taken my digital camera to show what it was I was doing and the people there. Unfortunatley there isnt anouther dance show until after the hand in deadline. But I have arranged for just as the easter break ends to rent out the hasselblad again and have some of the dancers come to my grandparents house to do some more portriats and hopefullt this time it should all work out in my favour.
I have developed all 5 of my films 2 colour and three black and white. 2 of the black and white films did not work well due to the hasslepblad and the fim getting jammed and also one of them where the sync lead was faulty the negatives were all under exposed. However these are some of the best shots from when I scanned in one of the black and white films. I will be going back again after easter to do some more portraits so I have more of a variety and more people.
Set task 2
tear sheet recreation : construction through deconstuction ?
On screen I will be talking about one portrait that uses electronic flash which I particulary like or find interesting. The image must have been made recently for a publication "( i.e. magazine, news paper , book etc )
I will recreate this image as one of my own and explain how I created it and what techniques I used and how I used the flash.
I decided to look into publications I would read and enjoy and how I could re create an image with what I have. I looked into the national portrait gallery and one of the prizes was Mario Testino, who photographs a few celebrities and the photographs ended up in the publication of vogue. I used to collect and read vogue religiously and it is completely different to what I am currently doing at the moment in my project.
For this portrait task I am going to arrange to meet with my cousin who I have photographed before and who has a very modelistic face ( photogenic ) I will be doing the hair and make up also and try and achieve a simllar close up shot to these photos ok kate moss.
Group photography
Annie Leibovits
When its a big group of people you are photographing in this case you will neeed perhaps a semi circle of sligh which there will be a main diffused light source with a filling light in front in order to light all subjects evenily and all equally lit.
When its a big group of people you are photographing in this case you will neeed perhaps a semi circle of sligh which there will be a main diffused light source with a filling light in front in order to light all subjects evenily and all equally lit.
