Final Evaluation

Final Evaluation 

Overall I feel that I have created a strong series of final images based upon my original topic of Locations and settings. I have done this by applying my own style, technique and variation of the theme and this included my idea of focusing on a person within a setting and location. When looking at my previous work and research I experimented with various different ideas and locations. By researching various artists it also meant I was able to gain an influence from the works of Walker Evans, Irving Penn, Yasujiro Uzo and Nan Goldin. This then led me to see what type of photography would work best for me during this project.

My work was based upon the idea of Duality and split personalities within. I wanted to show how someone may be leading a double life and have two personas, like the idea from the well known book Jekyll and Hyde. I did this by focusing on the idea of Drag and how for such a Glamorous way of a man to express their inner artist and creativity, why do so many feel the need to have to hide in the shadows. Therefore for Work record 1 my location/setting was from inside a home, showing a very glamorous drag queen completing the daily activities a stereotypical housewife might be thought of doing. Then Work record 2 was my contrasting shoot which showed the same model (Louie) out of drag and instead up exploring the cultural side of London. The reason for having completed my shoots this way was to show the conflict of how men in drag feel the need to dress down in a large capital city and instead in a home whereas a Woman would dress up and feel glamorous in the capital of our country which is London. Nan Goldin was a major influence on my work by the way that she too explored the LGBT community and political views. However, Irving Penn too was a great influence as it made me able to see how i could work with portraits whilst still looking at the topic of Settings/Locations. 

When looking at my Final images they consist of a range of coloured and B&W (black/white) edits. The reason for this is because it shows my ability to be able to  edit my photos in both coloured and B&W format. The majority of images edited in B&W always consisted of having a higher brightness and contrast as I liked the range of Zones i had from 0-10 on the Ansel Adams Zone system. My coloured photos would all then too being edited in a particular way, as I would add a blue tint and a pink/red temperature to affect the hue and filter of the images overall. I am really pleased with the outcome of my final photos although by experimenting with various techniques of using a camera if I were to improve my final images i would next time like to use a Tripod more, which would enable me to have a steady camera and improve the quality of my images. 

In conclusion, I feel that I have addressed responding to the exam paper successfully as by researching what different artists had done I then introduced my own style by looking at friends in a location. Whether they were dressed up ready for a night out or in casual clothing the settings used had varied from that of an everyday home to a large capital city full of swarms of people and extravagant architecture. 

Final Pieces

FINAL IMAGES 

WORK RECORD 2

Shoot 2 

Research influence -

Irving Penn was one of the most influential photographers in the twentieth century. Born in 1917 New Jersey, he was know for his portraits, fashion photography and still life. Penn was also known to be a master of printmaking and for his unique arresting images was also also celebrated by Vogue magazine as one of there top photographers for over 60 years.

One of his most famous and influential pieces: 

Woman in Moroccan Palace 1951:

In this image Penn had visited Morocco on a trip and captured this image of a woman sitting on a rug with what looks like some tea or beverages. He really captured the culture of the country by the idea of how they don't sit around tables and chair but on rugs and cushions on the floor. 

The image is a black and white portrait and has quite a high contrast. When considering the Ansel Adams zone system we can see that the Zone range from 0 (pure black) to 10 (pure white)

Contact Sheet -

Straight images -

A01 -

My work is linked to my artist research because I have focused on fashion and portraits like Irving Penn had done. I focused on capturing people in a city and with the all the surroundings of that setting. By seeing how Penn's Photography was mostly Black and White I then also considered converting my images and editing them in a similar style. 

A02 -

Edits:

When editing my photos within Photoshop I first took the images I wanted to keep in colour and edited them within Camera raw filter where I was then able to adjust the Brightness, Contrast, Shadows and Highlights. I then went onto focusing on burning and dodging which is in curves and I was able to darken and lighten sections within the image I wanted rather that the image as a whole. When then editing my images into Black and white I first adjusted the tones of red, blue, green, yellow and magenta within to make certain 

areas lighter and darker. I then took to my brightness and contrast following after with adding a gradient to some to create an overall darkened affect. In one image I did also use the Liquidfy tool which means I was able to adjust features of the face.

A03 - 

My idea for this shoot was to capture portraits of people within a city. I did this by first starting with setting my camera up so that the aperture and shutter speed was complementing the natural lighting. I then started to shoot photos with and around London in places like Oxford Circus, China Town,SOHO and within the underground. Some of these were Candid pictures and others I got my model to have direct mode of address and stare at the camera. 

When looking at my images I can see that some have had the wrong exposure and therefore need to be brightened up in Photoshop, some photos are also not as strong as others due if they had become unfocused and unclear. 

WORK RECORD 1

Shoot 1 -

Research influence - 

Nan Goldin was a photographer who had focused on deeply personal and candid portraits. Her photos acted as an autobiography documenting her and her friends focusing on LGBT and heroin-addicted subculture.

 Nancy Goldin was born on September 12, 1953 in Washington, D.C and had been exposed to tense family relations, sexuality and suicide early in her life. Through her suffering Goldin had then used a camera at the age of 15 to cherish her relationships with the ones she loved, as well as a political tool to inform the public of issues that were important to her. Influenced both by the fashion photography of Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin she saw in magazines. 

One of her most influential and famous pieces was: 

Jimmy Paulette & Misty in a Taxi NYC - 1991

This was a large Cibachrome photo of two drag queens in a New York taxi cab who both have a direct mode of address by staring directly into the camera. They were framed against the taxis rear and side window and they are cropped just below breast level.  They have a subdued look upon their faces and look as if they have just come back from a party by the way the strap on the right drag queen is slipping off. It could however highlight sexualistation by the midriff showing and the black latex on the left which highlights their features.

Contact sheet - 

Straight images - 

A01 -

My work is linked to my artist research because I have used and focused on the idea of Drag, which was one of the topics Nan Goldin had targeted. My work is showing how someone who dresses in drag may have to hide in the shadows based on the idea that certain parts of society don't except them. When looking at the images above you can see the domestic house chores being completed like cooking, washing and cleaning. It then also shows stereotypes of housewives e.g drinking alcohol. I was influenced by Goldin because of how she too focused on the matters of men in drag and the eccentric clothing styles. In my Opinion I feel that one of the strongest images was the one of Louie washing up as I also had the natural lighting of the window which made the features of the face stand out.

A02 -

Computer experiments 1 -

 In this Shoot I took the photos which I had thought had the most potential and decided to edit them in Photoshop. To the right are 6 
examples of how I edited each picture. To start off with I took my images into the Camera raw filter. This is where I was able to adjust the exposure, contrast, temperature, tint, shadows and highlights depending on whether a photo had a harsh or soft lighting. It also meant I was able to choose whether I wanted my photo to have a warm or cold tint, in which for most of my photos for shoot 1 I chose a cold blue tint with a contrast of a warm pink temperature. This meant that my photos represented a mixture of moods as blue can be associated with cold and sad, whereas pink/red can be represented as passionate or fiery. Therefore it shows my photo to show connotations of both like a alter-ego which for these images is drag. 


For some of the photos I added an extra warm filter or a gradient. This meant that the photo's contrast was less harsh and had the effect of photo films back in the 1950s -1980s. Some photos also had a shadow which I did not want there so I decided to use the Clone stamp tool which copied a section of the image     Computer experiment 2-
and pasted onto the part you wanted to
cover. 













Computer experiment 3 -

                                                                                    Computer experiment 4 -

Computer experiment 5 -

A03 -

My idea for this shoot was to capture the idea of an alter ego and mistaken identity. I wanted to capture the idea of the stereotypical 'housewife' but in the style of drag. I set up my camera in manual mode adjusting the shutter speed and iso to suit the lighting in the room. I then got my model to complete chores a 'housewife' would do and this then led to the start of my shoot. By looking back at my preparatory shoots, it led me to show this glamorous lifestyle whilst still hiding in the shadows of a home. I feel that by having experimented with locations and models in my preparatory shoots it led to my outcome of the 'home' setting with my model being dressed up in drag as i felt this was the strongest outcome. 

When looking through my images I can see that some outcomes weren't as strong as others due to the fact the camera hadn't focused properly or the flash had caused a shadow. The strong images which had a shadow I then improved by using the Clone tool in photo shop to cover up the shadow so that it was no longer there.  I used flash within my images to illuminate and accentuate the heavy makeup to look flawed and make the colours within the jacket light up and sparkle.