Physical Experiments

Physical Experiments
After looking at all of my shoots and completing them I selected the best 5 images that I have produced and conducted physical experiments on them. These physical experiments consisted of burning, drawing and screwing up. I have also presented the image that I have conducted an experiment on so the difference can be seen.

    

To experiment with this image I edited the image black and white, printed it out and them screwed it up. By screwing the paper up it made many crinkles in the paper which is a good effect on the image. It almost seems like the image has texture. I chose to screw up this image because it made it even more depressing and added to this effect. This image expresses the fact that this man is showing a stereotypical man and although this is his job which means he has to do these things other people shouldn't feel obliged too, we should screw up the ideas of stereotypes and throw them away.

   

To experiment with this image I decided I was going to write up-lifiting words on it. There are two experiments of this image because at first I used a biro pen to write across it but it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped and the words are very unclear. The second chance I had to edit this image I changed to writing in a felt tip pen which proved a better idea as the words can be seen more clearly. I chose to write the words 'love', 'happiness' and 'smile' and draw hearts. These words work well on this picture because it is a happy image and the words express the feelings of these people and will hopefully rub off on someone else.

   

     

    

In these three physical experiments I decided to burn out the face of the person. I took a considerable amount of time to do this experiment because I tried burning the paper each time and sometimes it caught fire completely and ruined the paper. Eventually, I decided the best idea that was to cut out the face and singe the ends. By burning the face and getting rid of it completely proved great significance. It gives a deeper meaning to the image which corresponds with the stereotypical life shoots I have worked on, it further expresses how these stereotypes should not be followed. Also, by burning the face it takes away their identity which means we judge the picture on what they are doing rather than the person and what they look like.

Evaluation

Evaluation

In my preparatory shoots leading up to my final exam I believe they have turned out well and have helped me decide what shoots I will be presenting in my final exam. At the beginning of component 2 we were given the exam paper which contained several photographers under the topic I would be studying. I chose to take the topic everyday activities because I believe that this was the best topic to express my work. I decided between self-identity and everyday activities, I was going to chose self-identity but I decided that I would find it hard to express myself through photography. 

On the exam paper there were several photographers under each topic. Under the everyday activities section there were three photographers and I decided to relate my work wholly to Bruce Davidson. I like Bruce Davidson's work because he documents everyday activities of urban life. I particularly like his photos of the New York gang he documents. As well as researching Bruce Davidson from the exam paper I also researched other photographers that have influenced my work. I researched Sam Shaw who documented photos of Marilyn Monroe. His images of Marilyn Monroe influenced the photos that I produced in my shoot called the stereotypical life of a girl. Marcel Kolacek was another photographer I researched. I liked his work because he documented peoples hard lives but these included emotions joy and happiness. Also, I researched Henri Cartier-Bresson, he uses the decisive moment which helped influence my shoots because I had to decide when the right moment was to photograph my pictures. Finally, I researched Barbra Kruger who influenced all my stereotypical life shoots because she creates images that show the real world and express real life opinions which link with what I was trying to express in my work. All the photographers that I have researched have influenced my work highly because many of my images relate to theirs.

During this project I think I have developed various new skills. In my shoot titled football I had to capture quick movement and I think I was able to capture this well. This counts towards developing a skill because I have changed the various settings on the camera to complement the images well and not create too much of a blur in these images. It was mainly the camera settings where I developed new skills because each of my shoots were in several different locations and these places all had different light which affected the camera. I was able to change the camera settings from my current knowledge and make them suitable for the environment I was in to make the images turn out visible rather than with too little or too much light. Also, I feel as though I have developed my skills in photoshop because I discovered how to use the camera raw filter which has many settings included which helps in editing my images. 

I believe that throughout this project my photo taking ability has improved because I was able to take pictures relating closely with the topic I was focusing on. As well as taking pictures in relation to the topic I was also able to capture interesting images which attracts the viewer and maybe plays with their minds and makes them think about what is actually going on in the image. I believe that each of my images that I have taken throughout these shoots each have a deep meaning and represent a purpose to the viewer. I was also able to produce experiments in this project such as physical and computer experiments. These experiments all worked out well because I played around with the images I had produced more than I normally would. I enjoyed the physical experiments because it was different to what I normally do by just editing them in Photoshop. Also, I enjoyed the computer experiments as it enabled me to change the image in anyway I wanted and give it different meanings.

In this project I believe all of my shoots were fairly successful. All of my shoots consisted of failed and successful images, I believe that it was good that some of my images failed because in my final shoots I can decide what will work and be successful and what will turn out to be a failure. I think all my shoots revolved around stereotypical life worked well because they displayed meaning and have an effect on peoples lives. In these shoots I believe that I can express feeling towards stereotypes and that we do not and should not follow them we should inspire to be our own person. At first I didn't really like the football shoot that I produced but when I published all my photos I saw each of them properly and decided that they did work under this topic and they were different compared to what everyone else was doing under this topic. I also like the urban life shoot because it goes outside the box of stereotypes and shows us what people who don't follow stereotypes are like and how they live.

Computer Experiments

Computer Experiments

After finishing all my shoots, I took 5 images that I liked from all my photos and I put them into Photoshop and performed some computer experiments on them. I have edited the images in the same way because I took influence from Barbara Kruger's work. Here I have also shows the original image that I edited the picture from.

   

This photo was taken from my shoot called stereotypical life of a girl. I chose to create a depressing effect in the edited picture because I think it fits well with the shoot in the sense that we shouldn't have to follow stereotypes. The caption 'i can smile through the pain.....' works well with the picture because she has a huge smile on her face. I chose this caption because I wanted to express that even though people may be smiling they may still be hurting.

   

This photo was taken from my shoot called urban life. I chose to create a depressing effect in the edited picture because although this was from a shoot that didn't include depressing effects I wanted to change the feeling in the picture. The caption 'why can't we all love each other' works well with the picture because we are seeing two people who clearly love each other walking down a street where they are oblivious to anything else going on. I chose this caption because I wanted to express the fact that in a world where there is so much hatred people can still love each other.

    

This was taken from my shoot called stereotypical life of a man. I chose to create a depressing effect in the edited picture because it works well with the theme of the shoot in the sense that we shouldn't have to follow these stereotypes, we should be our own person. The caption 'i'm not as strong as i look' works well with the picture because we can see a man lifting a heavy bag which makes him look strong. I chose this caption because although some people seem strong they maybe feeling something completely different, just by looking at someone we shouldn't judge them on their personality or feelings.

   

This was taken from my shoot called stereotypical life of a boy. I chose to create a depressing effect in the edited picture because it works well with the theme of the shoot in the sense that we shouldn't be obliged to follow these stereotypes. The caption 'you delight in the loss of others...' works well with the picture because he is a boxer and they get great joy when they win resulting in someone else losing. I chose this caption because there are people in the world, not just boxers or competitors, who get joy from other people's loss.

   

This was taken from my shoot called stereotypical life of a woman. I chose to create a depressing effect in the edited image because it works well with the theme of the shoot in the sense that we shouldn't be obliged to follow these stereotypes. The caption 'what makes a real woman?' works well with the picture because we can see a woman in the image. I chose to use this caption because it works well with the shoot and also suggests that there isn't such thing as a real woman because nobody knows what makes a real woman, everybody has their own opinions of what one is.

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