This Close To Me

Developmental Set

This photograph is one of a

series of photos called Inside

Out by two artists called Josh

Lake and Luke Evans. The

swallowed photographic 35mm

film, and after it had been

digested and out the other end,

they developed what the film

had picked up. They have taken

self portraits on a microscopic

scale, and this idea is one I will

be following.

The series of photographs that

Lake and Evans produced are

visually stunning and awe-

inspiring in the way they created

the images. The different photos

look like nebula or galaxies. The

message the artists could be

trying to put forward is that there

may be space to explore,

there is still so much to explore

inside out own bodies. They

have created amazing images

from something that most

people would not consider

being pretty, the insides of our

bodies. The other message

they could be putting across is

that everyone is beautiful on

the inside.

As soon as I saw these

images, I knew I wanted to try

something like this. I wouldn’t

go so drastic and swallow film,

but in my set of photographs, I

want to show everyday things,

like our bodies, in totally

different ways to how we are

used to seeing them. I will do

this by using a monochromatic

palate and a macro lens.

Evaluation

My project title is Monochromatic Portraits. I took these photographs

because I wanted to give a totally different spin on the ‘usual’ black and white

portrait photographs. I was really inspired by the Inside Out series and loved

how the two artists took something so disgusting and make it so beautiful. By

taking macro photos, I wanted people to be interested and intrigued as to what

the photographs are actually of. I wanted people to ask me what the

photographs are of and be amazed when they find out the subject matter.

I am so happy with my photographs. When I first started this project, I had a

vague idea of what I wanted to achieve and I’m just so impressed with how it

has blossomed. The blacks and whites are strong. The shadows and highlights

give the photographs a textured feel to them, making them seem more real life.

Because I used a macro filter, the depth of field is small. I could have amended

this, but trying to make a dog sit still to take photos of their whiskers is a very

hard task. However, I do like how there is only a sliver of in focus and the rest is

out of focus in some of the photographs.

I hope my photographs make the observer think and wonder over what my

photographs are of. I wanted it to be hard for the subject matter to be guessed

right away. Some of the photographs I have taken have caused people trouble

in working out in what they are of, which is exactly what I wanted.

Developmental Set 2 This is a photograph by Bálint Rádóczy from his series of photos called Skinscapes. Rádóczy

says that his reasoning behind these images is the shield that homosexuals create a shield

around themselves to protect them. ”This unbearable discrepancy between one’s idea of life

and reality is one of the greatest sources of creativity” He also says that Skinscapes is an in-

your-face way of showing this facade of a lifestyle, which is made of …” glorified youth, beauty,

overhyped sex, a fanatic obsession of pop, kitsch, hysteric clubbing and body worship”.

I personally feel that Rádóczy is Homophobic mainly because he has this false and tarnished

view to what all homosexuals are like. Nobody is the same, and it is very wrong to assume all

gay people are like this, because many are not the flamboyant ’Queen’ we may all think of.

However, I do not like the reasons for these

photographs, but think the artwork

themselves is beautiful.

I wanted to project my initial set of images

onto a body, expanding the photographs but

still making them hard to work out exactly

what they are. I love how with Rádóczy’s

photograph above it does just this. The

colours and shapes are the first thing the

eye notices and it takes just a second or too

to work out that there is actually a face

there. I will achieve this same technique and

project the images onto myself.

Evaluation of Developmental 1 With this set of photographs, I wanted to use the macro images as a sort of ‘second

skin’. I first tried to print out the images and cover myself and my other subject matters in

the photographs. However, this proved too expensive and too hard to achieve. As I said

in the last evaluation, it is very hard to make a dog sit still, even harder to cover them in

photographs. I feel I have made the macro photographs into a second skin to a very high

Standard.

The lighting of photographs is brilliant. Again, the shadows and highlights give the

photographs a texture to them, which I love. I projected the images onto myself wearing a

White top. I did this so I could introduce more shapes and textures into the photograph by

putting creases into the shirt, or by projecting the photographs onto my hair. This set of

Developmental images is very focused on shadows and light and textures. I feel I have

created both within all my images to a very high standard.

I want these photographs to make people step back and just appreciate the textures. I

really enjoyed taking these photographs because I really like the look of projected images

onto objects and people.

Developmental Set 3 This is a photo by Vincent Peters from his

advertisement campaign for Vogue Italy. He has

created this by smashing a photo frame, and

overlaying that image on top of the portrait.

We know it is glass because her lips and other

features are not distorted through the glass.

However, this could also be achieved by taking a

photograph of the smashed glass and overlaying it

on Photoshop or with acetate.

Peters uses dark black and light greys to show the

highlights and shadows of the woman. The

background is dark so the woman really stands out.

Her soft, unblemished skin is a bright, light grey

showing off the contours of her face. This also really

sets off her eye makeup and lipstick. Not only by

Vincent Peters website do we know it is for a

fashion magazine, but the quality of the image also

shows this.

In my next set of images, I will print out photographs

of my torso onto plain white paper, and stick them

on top of my computer screen with the base images

underneath. I hope this will give my photographs a

Film Camera look to them, and look less like

projections but more like silhouettes.

Evaluation of Development 2

With this set of photographs, I wanted to do more projections but couldn’t as I had

done that in my developmental set 1. I took nude photos of my torso because I wanted

to work with shapes and a smoother texture, like skin. Here I wanted to give the images

a grainy texture, as if it was from a film camera, so I printed out the photographs onto

plain white a4 paper. By overlaying them over the top of my computer screen, I could

change the exposure of the macro images. I had to do this a few times as the paper was

too thick for the textures to show through, so I had to increase the black on the

photographs. However, with the macro images showing through the white, it

counterbalanced the over exposures and gave the photographs a very grainy feel to

them, which is exactly what I wanted.

As I said before, I wanted to explore different textures, the smooth of the skin, the

texture of the macro images and the graininess of the paper. I really love how the macro

images come through the photographs of my torso. I originally wanted the textures of the

macro images to be only on the body, but after playing around with this, I decided that

having the whole macro image looked much better. I love the strong, geometric lines of

the macro images against the soft curves of the body.

I want these photographs to show the ‘normal’ way in which we think of bodies and

for them to contrast with the abnormal way in which the images everyday things look

close up.

Final Outcomes

This is a piece of artwork created by John Stezaker. He creates his artwork via appropriation.

He uses old photographs taken from different photographers and achieves, splices them

together and creates a new, surreal face.

The juxtaposition of the man and woman’s face shows the traditional, well groomed man and

the bright eyed, nice lips of the woman. It brings the two ideals of old fashions together. This

shows the ideals that the 1920s/1930s had in the way of having ‘pride in your appearance’ or

always looking well turned out and clean. Both male and female were expected to be

presentable, not even at work or going to the theatre, but also doing the housework, shopping

or gardening. This piece of artwork shows the idealism of the 1920s and how something from

two different things can be put together to make a new thing.

Project Evaluation I am so happy with my initial set of photographs, and even more happy with how

my project has developed and grown over the last few weeks. I have used different

techniques in developing my images, however they are both quite similar. I tried to do

an extra skin with the printed out images on the subject matter which when terribly

wrong. I was so inspired with Josh Lake and Luke Evans’ photographs, and feel I

have also created a set of photographs that make people thing and question what

they are seeing.

I really like my final outcomes, but not as much as the rest of my project. I would

go back and play around with the images and manipulate them in different ways. I

have tried to take different parts of the second developmental set of photographs to

create an image of a body. I really like the first three because they really do look like

a torso. I also like final outcome four as it is totally different fro the rest of my project

and final outcomes. I have used two images, taken different strips from them, pieced

them together, and then overlaid another photograph on top of it. I love the textures

and shadows in final outcome more, and if I was to redo this project, I may consider

doing this with the other three outcomes.

I have named this project ‘This Close to Me’, as unintentionally everything I have

taken macro photographs of, has a huge significance to my life. I have had a great

time doing this project and am just so happy with how well my images have come

out.