Update again!

After the print critique on Thursday I know I need to work on my color settings when printing. Magenta needed to be added to my photos because they were printing with a green tint. The others were over saturated a bit. The natural hair photo sparked lots of discussion I plan to remake this photo with something that is not a recognizable modern piece of clothing that can be found at a  mall because that it far from what I wanted to be said. I was thinking of going with something more natural like what was suggested tan underwear I'm not sure if I am ready to be all the way nude in my own art. I can also pick my head up and move my hair around freezing it in a more glorified way. When I see the way I'm standing in the picture now is taken over or defeated when I have more embraced my hair rather than just surrendering to it. To make 5 other interests I can separate ODU Student and Photographer. I can add Yogi, Cat Lover, and Beach Bum. Costumes would be too complicated and expensive to properly represent even the countries I have lived in individually. I am still thinking of more I am open to suggestions and I think the more photos I have the stronger my book and series will be.  

Update

As you all have now seen I finally took the time and materials up to the studio locked myself in and got work done. I asked Gretta for help because I was having a horrible time with the clarity of my photos. For some reason not enough light was getting in with just the soft box lights so we set up strobes. the strobe lights have umbrellas on the ends and only flash when the photo is being taken. There are walky-talky like antennas that connect the strobes to the hot shoe of the camera. These lights put out a bright light just when you need it. I tried to focus on myself by myself and that was not working. Every photo I took was blurry. Photographers benefit tremendously from assistance. By having another person to stand in I could set the focus and camera settings without having to be in front and behind the camera at the same time. I haven't worked with self portraiture before and I am really glad I did. It was much more difficult that I expected. I used to take hundreds of pictures of myself and I was having a tough time coming up with the right facial expression or body language for just one photo I was even remaking. I have 5 interests shown so far.  

Update

Because of a minor setback (injury), I couldn't do as much as planned as far as photographing. Even with the little I could do, I attempted to get some done but I know they aren't my best. I have also been re-editing some images to reprint because some of them came out a little funky. The critique from J.J.R on Friday was very insightful and gave me some things to think about when capturing my images. It is interesting to hear multiple views on your work. Moving forward, hopefully I'll be back in action in a couple days. I have a couple people I'm meeting up with. Just going to keep shooting.

I have been thinking about what I want my book to look like or consist of. I have always liked the idea of having some type of quote from the subject of the photograph. I know I won't have quotes for the series when showing in my senior show, but I definitely want them for my book. Now, I probably wouldn't have quotes for each photograph, but just a few to make "breaks" for the viewers.

This weeks progress

This past week I edited Belle image, but need to make more adjustments.  As for over the weekend I was able to photograph both Snow White as well as Cinderella.  I just got my Elsa outfit in the mail, but need to make minor adjustments to it before shooting and also need to figure out what scene/story should be for her's.

update

Hi everyone,

For now I have put my camera down, and I have begun researching anything and everything I can on the history of twins. I am going to try to take a deeper look at the twin side to this project and see what comes from it..thanks to Justin's critique on Friday. I'm still unsure what I am looking for, but I am going to open myself to any inspirations I may get from my research. I am excited for a new turn in this project.

Ive been looking at landscapes recently. I came across Sean Steward's Rivertown online. I really like his style, because of his ability to capture the voice of character in this town.
http://www.thegreatleapsideways.com/?ha_exhibit=rivertown-a-conversation-with-sean-stewart

Week 9

This week has been a week of critique for me. I finally got into the studio and started making work prints. I had a group critique with my photo seminar class. We also had a visiting artist this past friday, Justin James Reed. He gave a presentation on his work (which was amazing!!!) as well as critiquing our classes photo series. It was nice getting feed back from him and seeing from a different point of view how my photos are perceived. This weekend I am hoping to go out once again and see what is out there for me to photograph. I have a little bit more direction in what I am doing now.

“I’m interested in the ambiguity of images. The way that all photographs have elements of fabrication and truth making.” — Graham Miller.

New Series in the Works *sigh of relief*

Alright, so out with the bodies and in with a new series. As much as I loved the images I was getting from my series on body parts I realized I was not okay with committing myself to a series that wasn't something I was interested in/ could do the way I wanted to. Over fall break I came across a couple of houses for sale that were abandoned and incredibly run down. I photographed them. I kept looking over the images and began thinking of the concept of home and what exactly it is that differentiates a house from a home whether it is because of occupancy or being filled with personal belongings. I'm just into my second year living on my own and creating a home of my own so these are things that are very relevant to me at this point in time. I've also come to understand my style as more documentary as of late, so shooting this will be something I will really enjoy. I haven't been looking at any photographer in particular, just images of various abandoned homes to get inspiration for framing and composition. I want to include both detailed shots and entire rooms. I am going to explore Suffolk on Friday and North Carolina Sunday. Anyone know of any other places I should wander?

The sections of a book are called signatures.

Ariel Shoot and Video

This past week I shot my Ariel shoot at fort story.  It was over all a success since it was literally the last warm before the cold front. Afterwards I edited my image and I believe it turned out great.  I also took video of Laura burning her chair for senior show.  This upcoming week I will be photographing Snow White and Rapunzel.

Week 8

This week I worked on photographing myeslf in different places and seeing if they had anything that is relatable to my current series. I am learning that if I go out and continuously take pictures, that I end up getting something that I am truly love. I also think that the concept is starting to come through in all my photos. They're is a since of wonder and being lost in them. It is making me look more into who I am as a person and where I am at right now emotionally. This series was originally suppose to be about how far I have come since my divorce but I think it has turned into more then just that. I feel like there is a lot of issues in me that I do not let other people see just because when I let my walls down the person ends up hurting me. So I have learned to keep them in now. In my photos I feel like these are moments when I am letting the viewer in to see me at my most venerable state. I am alone in my element and letting you the viewer in.
  As far as this week goes I am doing 5 work prints and I am continuing to take pictures. I also have some new photos below that I have been working on.

Update

After a recommendation of a photographer, I knew where I wanted to take my series and the view I wanted. I'm venturing into environmental portraiture. Environmental portraiture was the idea of what I wanted my series to be in the beginning but I was straying away from that. I had to take a step back and take a breather because I was beginning to overthink things, like if I wanted to still schedule shoots or just walk around and shoot. I'll be doing both.

The photographer that I'm posting this week is the recommendation I was given. His name is Paul D'Amato. My inspiration came from his Here Still Now series.. beautiful portraiture! Even his statement was inspirational.

This week

This week I chose ten of my images and edited them for printing. I have chosen my images based on how they communicate individually and as a series. Each one has a unique message, and has a whole they explore the expression of my gender and identity. They tell a story about who I am, or what I am, and how I communicate this to the world around me. There are some aspects of myself that cannot be seen because they are internal. In order to express the idea that I am more than what meets the eye, I made some images that strip me of identity with abstraction, blur, or the absence of traditionally masculine and feminine traits. I have been using the artist Claude Cahun as groundwork for my experimentation in the studio. I found a modern photographer working with expressions of identity and gender. Her name is Mylou Oord and she is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I found a video on ASX of her 2010 show in the Foam gallery. She photographed her friend, Anyouk Tan, in different environments doing various things. These unusual photographs of Anyouk Tan spark ideas about my own ways of making a statement about who I am.

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2010/10/asx-tv-mylou-oord-it-would-be-so-nice-2010.html

Last week

The last few weeks I have been doing a ton of research, trying to find a way to raise questions about the concept of gender. I have found that I am really able to push expectations when I bring the camera into the studio, because it eliminates distractions, and brings the focus to myself. I am also able to manipulate my appearance more with the use of make-up, wigs, clothing. I found a few artists on ASX blog that work in both photography and film. I have been using these artists to explore the potential I have of expressing my gender in front of the lens. Elisha Smith-Leverock made a short film about a woman who is a bodybuilder. The video shows a different, and in a sense taboo, expression of femininity. 

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/03/asx-tv-elisha-smith-leverock-i-want-muscle-2011.html

Steven Meisel is a fashion photographer, but the behind the scenes video of his Hotel Chelsea shoot has an air of androgyny. The male subjects wear clothes that are against the social norm, and the female model displays femininity that contrasts the model above. The males act quite feminine and the woman has a boyish figure. These motifs are influential because they can be uncomfortable for our society to view.

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/10/asx-tv-steven-meisel-italian-vogue-2011.html

Sunday

Hi everyone-

This week I have decided to put Bristen Krown on the back burner and focus on just taking more self-portraits. I am trying to first get successful images of myself and see what they say, rather than trying to force them into this "doubled" theme I have created for myself. In the pictures I have taken recently, sometimes a double shows up accidentally in the frame.
It's pretty amusing and frustrating that I didn't try this when I first started shooting for this series.

I am going to continue to push myself in front of the camera for this now..'self-examination' project..I guess that is what I am calling it for the next week.

Recently I have been looking at work by Jen Davis.
She also has done a lot of self portraiture.
Her site and sample work are below.
http://www.jendavisphoto.com/index.php

Progress/Seung-Hwan Oh

I have been making progress on my artist statement also I have narrowed down 2 styles of shooting for the work. found more of a lane for the work Seung-Hwan Oh is a photographer that uses mold to create a very unique and beautiful final product. He calls the project Impermanence because of the way he realized mold effected and damaged film over time. Although it takes a crazy amount of frames to create a single good one the final result is an amazing take on the photography medium.

Enrique Metinides

Enrique Metinides is a Mexican photographer who work captures a number of heinous  crimes commited in Mexico City. His documentary style encapsulates the raw and horrifying streets, starting from the 1960s and spanning over the next few decades. Much of his earlier works are in color and are not focused on the people of Mexico but as the years go by, he adds color to his work and creates deathly portraits of the poor victims of crimes.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/03/11/enrique_metinides_101_tragedies_of_enrique_metinides_documents_50_years.html

Latest Update

After this past weeks talk I realized instead of trying to fit myself into a mold, I should instead step back realize why I am doing this project to begin with.  Why am I doing this? What's the point of this project?  I know realize that I am honestly a girl who has lived a depressing life and in order to face the world and deal with the life I live I put on a smile and make everything to be happy all the time. I act like everything is okay, but to be honest it's not. It actually sucks and sometimes wonder whats the point anymore. What's the point of putting up this fake reality that doesn't exist.  As much as I wish it to be real, it is still fake.  No matter how much I dream and how real they feel to me it is in the end still fake and am forced to wake up each day.  I strive to be this perfect princess where dreams do come true, but to be honest the princesses dark past follows them and the question is "Are they even really happy" or is it "As close as they will get to happiness since their life has been so crappy and anything is better than what they have been living".  Maybe that's why I want to do this project because I can relate to them on a far beyond level that goes beyond pixie dust.

Ophelia by  John Everett Millais  1851/52

After this past weeks talk I realized instead of trying to fit myself into a mold, I should instead step back realize why I am doing this project to begin with.  Why am I doing this? What's the point of this project?  I know realize that I am honestly a girl who has lived a depressing life and in order to face the world and deal with the life I live I put on a smile and make everything to be happy all the time. I act like everything is okay, but to be honest it's not. It actually sucks and sometimes wonder whats the point anymore. What's the point of putting up this fake reality that doesn't exist.  As much as I wish it to be real, it is still fake.  No matter how much I dream and how real they feel to me it is in the end still fake and am forced to wake up each day.  I strive to be this perfect princess where dreams do come true, but to be honest the princesses dark past follows them and the question is "Are they even really happy" or is it "As close as they will get to happiness since their life has been so crappy and anything is better than what they have been living".  Maybe that's why I want to do this project because I can relate to them on a far beyond level that goes beyond pixie dust.

Ophelia by  John Everett Millais  1851/52

Joanna Piotrowska

I have been exploring how other photographers pose their model, how space in the room is utilized, and myself. Many fashion photographers have been posing their models in awkward poses. The models are laying down like they posed then fell over that way paralyzed. This way of posing makes you look at the model in another way not as a fashion icon but maybe even more human with flaws. Most people think they are very flawed. One reason why many girls and some guys like to dress up and be kawaii is to feel pretty and transform from the mundane look of every day style. Hair, makeup, and clothes all make the look. When I dress up I don't feel like I'm trying to be more attractive. I am actually am awkward in my opinion but I don't always look it. While taking the steps to starting self portraits I noticed I liked the ones that looked like there was something off not like the straight forward portraits of Tomoko Sawada. The photographer I found this week Joanna Piotrowska has multiple photos that explore posing people in interesting yet awkward ways.  

Larry Sultan

Larry Sultan is a Californian photographer who tends to take documentary style photos. His work really focuses on life in his surroundings in Cali and the family life that inhibits his landscapes. His work borders staged documentary but it works incredibly well with his overall content of his body of works.

http://larrysultan.com/

Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Arno Rafael Minkkinen is a photographer from Finland born in 1945. I found him while googling "photography of body parts". Gretta really wants me to include my subject's heads in my series but I am trying to find beautiful photography without it that doesn't look like it belongs in a medical book. I like Minkkinen's images because the body is placed within nature and compliment their scene. They are strong black and white images focusing on parts of the body. Even in the images of the body the head is absent, forcing the viewer to focus on the form itself. I want the same for my series and have now seen that exclusion of the head will still make for beautiful photos. 

Thomas Jackson/ Progress

For my project i've taken the style im shooting with outside and have gotten some interesting result. Overall I'm gonna just keep shooting to have a vast array of results and to pick the most sucessful ones.

Thomas Jackson is a photographer from Rhode Island that began his professional career in New York as an editor and book reviewer. There he fell for photography and began making his own work that are just as quirky as they are colorful and imaginative.

Week 6 progress

This week I have taken more photographs. The photo that I had in mind was one with my mother and I. It was something I had not originally thought to make a picture of but once I thought it up in my head I had to see what it looked like on camera. For me the photo has a lot to do with me looking into what my feature holds, and what might lay ahead. In this coming week I am going to push myself to make 5 new photos.

Cornelia Hediger 

Cornelia Hediger was born in Switzerland but now works in New York. She is well know for her series DOPPELGANGER. Hediger is both the photographer and model in the series. Her work mainly focuses on the internal struggle that goes on within herself and it sometimes comes across as dark. I am personal drawn to her style of photography and the content as well. I am also dealing with an internal struggle of my own when it comes to finding where I fit in after dealing with such loss. It was nice to see her different approach, and see her using many photographs and putting them together as one.

This Weeks Progress

    This week I continued to hand paint my shell bra and was able to merge the three shells together.  On top of working on Ariel's props I did Belle photo shoot.  My friend and I put up the props and lit the set.  After everything was put in place the shoot began.  I framed each shot, while my friend hit the button.  Once the shoot finished we put everything back and changed cloths.  The total time for setting up, photographing, and putting everything away was a total of four hours.Not too bad for the first shoot in my opinion.  It gives me an estimate on how long each shoot might possibly take.  As for the shell I spent over three hours working on it. The next princess I plan to shoot is Ariel.

This Week

I have been working on completing more portraits with different woman, and reshooting the ones that I had done before but were too dark. I have also tweaked my art statement based on suggestions from Greta.
I met with Greta last week after class and she showed me some portrait artists to look at. One that really stood out to me was Irving Penn. His black and white portraitures are beautiful! His lighting and gestures he captures from each individual is very inspirational for my work. I even appreciate the fact that he doesn't always focus on the person's face. Sometimes it is the gestures someone makes with their hands, for example, his portraits of Miles Davis.

I also really enjoyed his work where he places his subjects in the corner of this room and he simply captures what they do. It inspired ideas and a mindset to just capture what my subjects give me.