Experimenting for Final Outcome.

Looking back at the work that I have done and my mindmap of ideas for my final piece, I experimented with some of my favourite prints to see what work and enhancements inspired by photographers I realistically would want to use to create a final piece.

This was originally an attempt to weave that went wrong so instead I had what looked like a frame with reversed colours from the text printed on photo paper and the photograph with the text appearing with a black background. I started to cut them into strips but then decided to fit them together to create the frame, I stuck them onto paper to achieve the result.

Weaved two of my prints, inspired by Greg Sand, enjoyed it before so I chose to do it again.

I incoorprated bold colours with related to make up into my photograph, I also tried sewing because even though I didn't enjoy it in Stacey Page's style, I wanted to see how it would enhance my images by applying it simple, I went around the ripped outline to enhance the texture of it and also the orange thread gave it a puppet effect, as if her arms were being controlled, representing fashion modelling.

I returned to collage which I was inspired by Michelle Thompson and Quentin Jones but gave it my own style, because of considering collaging for my final piece it was quite a tacky collage but the alcohol lids represent the party theme and foil for a 3D effect on the jewellery which was scrunched up and using PVA I stuck this down. 

These were various enhancements that I thought I could combine together for a collage as my final like mentioned in my mind map or a mounted sheet presented with lip prints and fashion related objects, a very practical and arty approach on top on my darkroom prints which I thought was contrast nicely because of the bold colours and 3D texture.

I enhanced my Jeffrey Wolin work by burning the edges because I liked this experiment when I previously tried it out because of the texture and I thought it would fit well with an olden effect because this was the style of the photographs (quite vintage) and the war letters, I could take these photographs further by presenting them as a book or mounted sheet with a sepia colouring to present  the war in a similar way to something such as a diary or encounters/stories.

Here I burned the face for lack of identity. 
I didn't take this further because even though the fashion was visible it wasn't as clearly presented as it could be, I couldn't really relate the emotion it would bring with fashionable clothes because it contrasted too much which real events.

Overall I preferred my work I previously did inspired by Charlotte Caron, I thought that my photographs with animals paintings on them presented catwalk fashion well and also combined my darkroom prints which required more skill to produce than digital ones. I thought that I could heat transfer these onto fabric such as canvas or cotton to present clothing material which is obviously related to fashion.
I had taken 6 front portraiture photographs and 6 side profiles, by experimenting with the paint and realising that I preferred the side profiles of the animal paintings rather than the full on ones because I think they could look more effective if I did a series of them lined up rather than one on its own because they would be exactly the same in composition and look good facing the same way.
Because the below photograph lacked contrast because of the out of date chemicals used to process my filmstrip, I decided to have a series of five animals paintings on humans rather than all 6, I think having one directly in the middle (which I would need an odd number to do) would look better and help them stand out more.

Jeffrey Wolin Inspired Work.

To enhance my photographs I decided to firstly see what I could do with the cemetery photographs, the idea of it being by a war memorial I could incorporate letters from soldiers or loved ones during this time so that I could experiment with relevant text on top of the prints.

Jeffrey Wolin, professor of photography at Indiana University, he put text onto photographs in his series of photographs in his 'Stories from the Holocaust' section on his official website - http://www.jeffreywolin.com/written.shtml.

This text also related and reflected on their meaning because they wrote encounters themselves to use on the photograph, for example this photograph below of Rena Grynbalt (b. 1926) taken in 1993, toned with gap using a silver marker pen rather than overlaying tracing paper like I decided to do for a better effect because I was limited to materials to tone them. The photograph she is holding within the frame is of her baby son, who was seized in a raid in the ghetto during the holocaust, the subject is reflect son is missing children. I liked the meaning behind his work and thought that such a simple picture can hide so many emotions which are presented to us subtly in the text. His work inspired me to create a similar meaning on my photographs by using peoples war encounters on my photographs which could present a sense of loss or emotion. The clothes can still be seen so I could still promote this style within my photographs.

All photographs exposed at their original appropriate timing/f/filter, paper with text printed on layed over the paper under the enlarger after expoure, on f6 and filter 5 I exposed this for 10 seconds allowing the text to come through without overexposing the original photograph.

I decided to do the same thing with some of my other photographs but this time I ripped part of the text I had chosen away so I could use this to cover part of my photograph when exposing the text so that it didn'tcover my image but instead gave this effect below where the photograph looks like it is appearing from text being torn away. The text is various words relating to fashion e.g. clothes, beauty.

Here I exposed the text for 5 seconds, filter 5, f 8 which only let it appear slightly and the main focus of the photograph is still my own image.

Here I exposed the text on f 16 for 5 seconds, filter 5 and it came through much darker and block coloured showing a contrast between the black and white, I moved the ripped paper covering my original image after exposure slightly so that various tones could appear in the text exposure. The scratch marks are from the glass and give it a rough edge look matching the harsh make-up.

Here I only used a small bit of text and lay this on top of my paper after exposing this photograph. It was smudged due to not flattening it out, I preferred the ripped open effect I achieved before.

Charlotte Caron Inspired Work.

On a black and white film I shot side profile portraits of friends that I could possibly use to create work similar to Charlotte Carons. Because of the fuzzy grey scales on the white background I edited this out using the eraser tool on photoshop.

Because of inaccurate aperture the first photograph came out too under exposed because of lack of light, also the photograph above I tried enhancing the contrast more and erasing everything except her completely but this was too obvious so I stuck to photoshop for the eraser rather than magnetic lasso I used for this. the clothing people wore varied for example the german army jacket was an interesting item relating to fashion because of the drama and controversy it could cause, also the contrast between light casual clothing such as the jumper or a black hoodie worked well so that although the head gear was the most important part of the piece (the animals) because of its relation to fashion, the clothing didn't all look the same and also said something about the status and style of it.

I decided to also photograph some front on portraits to see how this would work when painting the animals on to bring in some of my own compositional ideas. The photograph above was a slightly different pose but I thought because her arms would be showing when the animal is painted on top, it could look good to present wings for a bird if I choose to do this or try it out.

I then had to decide what animals to use, I thought to stick to a certain theme for example mammals from the wild, polar animals, birds or even neutral coloured animals.
I took a photograph of a bird because it was stuffed and kept in college and if I could I wanted to take the photographs myself. A friend had a dog which I also photographed. For the rest I decided to use photographs already taken of a fox, a rabbit and a ferret. These animals are all common in England and can be wild, their colours are also various greys, browns and oranges. here are the photographs I experimented with first of all for the side profile pictures -

Click here for link to photograph website.

Click for link to photograph website.

Click here for photograph website.

Charlotte Caron Analysis.

Young French artist and photography included, graduating with fine art, honours in 2011, her work is divided into four sections - Landscapes, portraits, anatomy and vanities. Her portraits series shows human portraiture photographs with paint on top of them creating an animals features and face instead of keeping the humans. Exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery, the work was created personally, the 2 portraits coming together to try to give a form of duality and create harmony between the 2 mediums. It is a fashion piece and relates to catwalk fashion in terms of over the top head gear which hides identity or gives an animal like behavoir impression.I have chosen to analyse this piece because I really like the way to two mediums sit well together and the way it looks so natural and normal even though it is completely unrealistic, the colours blend well together and being a painter myself I think I could incorprate similar elements in my own work. I could use the same materials or perhaps try embroidery instead of paint, I also think the pieces would look good on material such as cotton fabrics.

I translated the information from French on her website (charlottecaron.fl) and looked at trendland.com for photographs of this work and information about her four different types of work and when she graduated/the type of art she does. I have noticed in her other works she uses a similar techniqure when painting, for example her landscapes colour is blended very well and gives a dripping down effect within the painting as does her portraiture work here. Caron quotes 'The series of paintings/photographs are trying to respond to a form of duality, ultimately creating an osmosis of the two mediums. The genre is portraiture, although mixed media is used to enhance the original photograph, making it more interesting and worked on. The title of the works is as a series is simply Animal Portraits over Human Portraits and ach individual work isn't named, this lets us focus completely on the visual side of the work and how it sits, she also supplies us with a set meaning rather than letting a title put this into place or letting us interpret it. The subject of meaning is the consistence of two sides, this being the human side and the animalization of them with including the animal side, it shows we are all mammals and beings of this Earth and combines us into one being. She is trying to present duality in her work, this could be because of its theory of good and evil forces being balanced on Earth, if the animals can do bad and good then so can we as humans and she has found inspiration in this personal and desired attempt to create a visual representation of it.

Materials used are a DSLR camera to take high quality photographs of her human subject as the base of the work, I suspect photoshop or an editorial has been used to brighten the contrast and smooth the photograph over for a more flawless effect on the materials we see seen as the faces are completely hidden. Painting being her mostly used skill and what she did for the main bulk of her degree, she paint realistically in terms of the animal subject and colour mixing is an important skill for her here. Various brushes used, small ones for hairs on the beak and larger ones to create shape with is important for the composition, the colour element alone isn't enough to produce the whole painting part of the composition, because of the subtleness line isn't too important because nothing needs outlining because it isn't there when we look at the subject in reality although tone when mixing colour is important to achieve various shades in the same colour spectrum. She uses colour in a similar spectrum for example the colours in this bird one merge together, the browns gradually lighten forming ochres and yellows, with are then lightened to create a white which blend blue in gradually, we can see that she has spread the colour down the painting and perhaps used water as an additive to let the pale colours drip over the slightly darker ones in a rather subtle way, depth is created with small brush flicks in the direction of the skeletal structure on the birds face, the paint is used quite sparingly in terms of how it is applied, there are no thick blobs or worked on bumps, the paint in flat but texture is created by the drips and the smoothness of the paint strokes she blends. It reminds me of the realism art movement, although this was particularly used on humans it has a similar look in terms of texture and a flattened paint approach creating a realistic look with complex tones of the colours used and shadow being applied to add to the realism as Carom does with the fine brush strokes for the beak hairs and the deepness of the eyes and the gaze they give off. The scale of the work is around a meter by a meter and presented on canvas, I think the scale is important in terms of each composition, it should always be kept the same so that one composition doesn't stand out too much and over take the others. The scale is perfect to looks around at each piece, if it was too large it would be too overbearing and seem less like a series when exhibited like one.

My first reaction to the work was that it was more simple in terms of paint but when I looked closer I could see more detail and that it fitted to the facial composition. I like the colours used and how effective they are in terms of the piece being more complicated than simple. The blending also helps it to be more subtle. I am inspired because I feel this could be good to use my painting skills in my own photography work, also the idea of using other mediums such as sewing and fabric printing to enhance my own photographs when trying out this method. It doesn't remind me of anything I've seen before, I think the work is such a simple idea yet never thought of and produced in this interesting way.

Dan Mountford Inspired work.

Dan Mountford did a series of double exposures on one film strip in an SLR, here I tried to do this keeping my subject matter based on the human figure for fashion aspects.

To create a double exposure but using one negative with both images on one shot here is what I done - 

1. Wind on the film as normal.

2. When I started shooting I put the aperture down one from the appropriate lighting and I shot the whole film like this.

3. Instead of winding the film to take it out I wound it back in but not all the way.

4. Then I took another shot of pictures will overlay the first. 

5. Finally I wound it out as normal.

 Flowers underneath for nature effect, fashion of hairstyles. Timing 45, F16, filter % and then 35 seconds burning the top half of the image because of the negative being faint.

 Timing of 30 seconds and 10 seconds burning the skeleton and top half of photograph, F 16, filter 5.

 Timing of 40, F 16, filter 5.

 Timing 30, burning around her to hide the trees, F 16, filter 5. Favourite because it looks more like Mountfords photographs in terms of a white background taking over and leaving boths scenes in a certain shape.

Timing 40, 20 second burning on top third, F 16, filter 5.

30 second timing, 15 second burn on top third, F 16, filter 5.

Make-Up Photographs Inspired by Karla Powell.

Because of my interest in fashion portraiture, mainly to advertise aspects of make-up products rather than clothes I looked at the work of modern day make-up artist Karla Powell, a fashion, beauty and make-up artist based in London NYC. Her life is based around using her blog in her spare time whether this be Tumblr or Twitter to broadcast her work, she is head of Make Up Academy in NYC. She takes make-up to the next level and involved things such as sequins, various colour, over loading the product for a very dramatic and different effect.

The photographer is Jayesh Pankhania, in his work he particularly focuses on fashion portraiture and took these below photographs for Powell.

 This photograph was produced for her series of works involving food with photographs (her most recent work), this photograph doesn't show the Sushi in the models hair but I preferred this look involving just the make-up, particularly the use of sequins, how simple it is but how effective it can be.

Here is some of her work which involves eye make-up tutorials, I liked the contrasting colour and use of materials.
For my own photographs I decided to take inspiration from the sequin use, I didn't quite know what to do with them but they reminded me of a photograph of Lady Gaga by Kane Skennar a photographer focusing on fashion, celebrities and portraiture. Because of the sequins on her hood which I thought I could create a similar shape to the paint on her face but with these sequins. I used black and grey powders to create dramatic effects on the eyes and followed the straight brush marks on Powell's food make-up but with darker colours.
Because the Gaga photo was for Poker face Throughout my shoot I thought to use playing cards as a game element to the photograph which could also gives power to women because it tells the audience they can play this. Also incorprated a music disk to bring it into the idea of fashion involving someone from the music industry.
Here are my digital photographs, some looked better black and white and some both black and white and coloured. Photoshop used to edit them - brightness and contrast, highlights/shadows and selective colour alteration and colour balance. Advertises the make-up but also the top garment, underwear and music. Vinyl used it match the old scene I took these in, a run down, falling apart wall. But also a bathroom to represent partying) because this could be a party outfit) and an eventful rough night.

The rest below are my darkroom prints from an SLR film I took at the same shoot. Overall I prefer them in black and white because more contrast was achieved naturally.

Here is my contact sheet. F11, 15 seconds and full contrast.

 Filter 5, F 16, 12 seconds.

Filter 5, F 16, 14 seconds.

Filter 5, F 16. 15 seconds.

 Filter 5, F 16, 14 seconds. (Below photographs with disk are the same).

Below the out of focus effect worked with anger and the fierce grin she did, I achieved this by slightly turning my focus ring to blur the image.

Filter 5, F 16, timing 10.

 Filter 5, F 16, timing 9.5.