Final Piece Evaluation.

The idea of this Enhanced image project was to experiment with ways of changing photographs form their original state by experimenting in the dark room with things such as sandwich printing, handmade negatives and everything else presented in this blog, also digital enhancements on programmes such as photoshop where tutorials giving various effects for example limo or nashville effect. Other ways of enhancing could involve collaging with various materials, painting on top of them, ripping them act. which can be done on both darkroom prints and digital photographs in colour or black and white. By the end of the project the aim was to have a strong amount of various experiments and be ready to produce a final outcome involving photographs taken myself enhanced in some way (one or more ways of enhancing) and backing it up with inspiration from photographers that have inspired me to do what I choose to do with my photograph. My ideas of fashion have always been quite bold and different rather the casual styles, I liked looking at photoshoots which to me were very over the top, for example Karla Powell's make up designing which I have looked at. 

The journey of my project started from simple fashion photographs in the street with a coloured film, I then took this to a black and white one using a female model instead so that I could enhance them in the darkroom whilst developing rather than just digitally. I enjoyed collaging with some of the digital photographs, also double exposure in the darkroom. I stepped up my photoshoots by daring to include more props and create make-up that was more over the top, also focusing specifically on what my subjects were wearing, for example the 60's styled hat in my Parkinson inspired shoot. Towards this point of the project I started to look into more photographers which took photographs of the sort of shoots I liked, such as Powell and Parkinson and thinking about what enhancements would go well. When thinking about text I could overlay to my photographs, I looked at Jeffrey Wolin because his text had meaning and significance to the photographs, I did this to my 60's shoot combining letters from lost ones from the war to go well with the setting. This lead me on to create my own ideas for example enhancing these images even more by burning the edges to match the old and ruined effect. I tried to use text for my fashion photographs too, although I only covered part of the photograph (the background) as Wolin did, this lead me to weave the reversal of the text together creating a bold frame effect, I also played around with the timings of the exposure of the text giving me different results - one black and white text, the other more light and faded. Also, my darkroom prints inspired by Powell's make-up could look good when collaged so after having experimented with Quentin Jones and Michelle Thompson styled collages, I decided to involve elements that would relate to the photographs, for example alcohol lids for the party theme to be collaged on to represent her hair. When browsing for fashion photographers I looked at Charlotte Carons work and this involved detailed painting on digital photographs. Because I paint and like to do so detailed I thought that I could produce some dark room (for bonus marks for developing myself) prints myself to try this. Looking at these photographers led me to try out their style of work which over and over has led me to new ideas of my own stemming from their style.

Charlotte Caron was the photographer that inspired my outcome along with Stacey Page. The experimenting with painting in detail on photographs really appealed to me and I thought about my presentation of it and because I looked at Page before and had seen she had her photographs heat transferred (printed on fabric) I could do this (seen as she also covered some human faces up with animal identities but sewn instead of painted, below).

I printed my photographs on the fabric and this gave it a sense that it was fashion because it invalid actually clothing material (cotton) and also gave the photographs a texture of clothing/fashion. Although I didn't enjoy sewing. I thought whilst doing this piece, at the point where the painting was completed on the fabric, that I could enhance it further by taking tips off of Page and sewing around the edges of my photographs to present them separately more clearly and involve a process that is done to produce actual fashionable clothes. The animals on humans relates to this also because of catwalk head gear which I looked at here  on the Fashonising.com website. My idea to produce 5 rather than one was  my own choice but by backing up what I wanted to do with it by the inspiration from Caron and Page I felt this was justifiable, although Caron did a series, they didn't sit together as one piece and were larger, I thought mine would work better as a 5 because all of them stand out because there isn't too many and it also looks like a catwalk group in terms of more than one person walking in the same direction, I could also clearly show the type of animals I was involving in my painting clearly by doing more.

I am happy with my final outcome, I think that I took my original photographs a step further by enhancing them so much by using my painting skills to produce something appropriate but also something that I enjoyed. I am most happy with the choice I made to print my photographs onto fabric, I think this gives them a much more flexible effect and was a better base (similar to canvas) for paint to go on, it sat together well and because the fabric and paint had texture it wasn't looking out of place which I can imagine happening on photo paper if I had chosen to paint straight onto this, the smooth texture would contrast too much with the paint. I think the subtle sepia toned cloth went well with the neutral colour soy the paint, it didn't look too clean for the messy texture and various muddy colours created with the paint. I also think the idea to produce a series of these animals was a better but the sewing kept them separate clearly but also was quite subtle, the choice of orange represented 5 people without overbearing the actual composition, which was vertical rather than horizontal so that the walking direction was appropriate. I feel I could have improved the positioning in terms of size of my photographs when printed, the middle one was slightly too large and this shows in my composition on the top of his head, also the shape of the left over fabric could have been cut small and presented in a frame rather than left to hang, but this could also work well because of the texture and flowing material.

I enjoyed this project because making the images different to stand out by enhancement was my sort of style, experiments such as double exposures I could use again, especially my Dan Mountford inspired ones - the negative space with the face with a tree texture worked well and I could think of more ideas for this in my next project titled 'The Personal Project' and perhaps produce a piece with this involved with various models and poses, with a textured background. Another experiment was the collaging I did on my final mounted sheet, I could advance this and produce a large scaled image with detailed collaging on things such as accessories in the photograph, eye lashes ect. I liked the effect sewing gave photographs I'd looked at better than my own ones for example Page's embroidery, I feel I could create this effect by scratching into my prints or laying tracing paper over them to expose them with pen marks represented thread. In terms of theme people is my favourite subject matter and I have enjoyed being able to do this constantly with this project and because it is my personal style involved next time, I will keep to this and use these skills I have learned to produce something else enhanced and interesting.