PITCH
In collaboration with Joe Palmer
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We have developed a new project idea and concept. Joe and I started talking about how we both felt like we could not make justice to what we where trying to portray in the other project, as we don't feel like its either our place or time to do so. We started thinking about things we have in common that we can speak about; themes like race, gender, sexuality came up but again, we felt like we didn't feel comfortable enough to speak on this subjects. We realised that one thing we both found difficult after these discussions, was how hard it was for us to speak up about anything on a personal basis, how its hard for us to open up and how we bottle up feelings and thoughts.
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The Idea
We have decided to begin an experimental journey for the both of us to try and open up to each other, and we will try to document this project in a medium that we both feel comfortable working in, which is photography. We aim to create a photographic series that documents our best effort to stop bottling up feelings.
What we will research
We started thinking about things that can push us to feel the urge to let us speak out, what things can we incorporate to put us in the right mind set. So the psychology of colour came to mind. The colour red is associated to different emotions and actions, attributed to primal instinct and urgency - a colour that could help us be in the mind set where we think about intense or powerful thoughts. We will also research documentary photographers and artists that portray these feelings, artists like Nan Goldin and Francesca Woodman. We both have agreed that choosing an aesthetic will help us remember to document our project and will help with having something that we both can use as a creative outlet to use as a coping mechanism and to be pleasing to our eyes at the same time. So we will reference artists that we researched for the previous project - Gem Fletcher, Rosanna Jones, Alma Haser, Anairam, Sam Kweskin, etc.
Concept wise
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| Francesca Woodman |
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| Francesca Woodman |
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| Nan Goldin |
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| Nan Goldin |
Aesthetic wise
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| Gem Fletcher |
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| Gem Fletcher |
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| Alma Haser |
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| Alma Haser |
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| Rosanna Jones |
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| Rosanna Jones |
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| Sam Kweskin |
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| Sam Kweskin |
Contextual Understanding
This project will help me develop as a documentary photographer because it will push my photographic skills and put me in situations that I have avoided such as, documentary photography, studio photography and also making me part of the photographs. This project is getting me out of my comfort zone in many ways, and I feel like that is gonna be the most challenging part of it - To try to deliver an art piece that we find aesthetically pleasing while we struggle to show ourselves to the camera. That is why photographers like Nan Goldin and Francesca Woodman where the first ones to come to mind, these artists both talk about their own personal struggle and show their life stories in a beautiful and successful way. We aspire to create our own "Ballad to Sexual Dependecy".
We collectively aim to grow as photographers and aid each other in our photography skills - Joe will help me have a better understanding of studio shoots and editing and I will help him with composition and low light photography.
Technical and Creative Skills
I have worked as a photographer before and I will try to use them to my full capacity to try to deliver a project that is very personal to me. We will require extensive artist research to decide what could work best for our final series and our installation. We will experiment with different lighting, environments and do multiple shoots until we can both be satisfied with how much the photographs give out about ourselves.
I have worked previously with coloured light and low light photography, so I will put those skills to the test. As for the equipment, we will experiment with different DSLRs such as my Canon 80D and the Nikon D90, we will also experiment with different lenses to see if it changes the information that the photography gives out.
Joe has worked previously as a photographer as well. Most of his work can show a clear understanding of studio lighting and portrait photography. His photography shows as well skilful editing and knowledge of adobe programs.
How we plan to turn it into an installation piece
Schedule
We
plan on shooting regularly so we can give ourselves enough time to
experiment and "open up" to each other. Also allowing us to shoot a lot
during a long period of time we will be able to document this process
that we both find difficult.
- First Studio Shoot - 06/10/17
- Second Studio Shoot - 16/10/17
- more shoots pending to be booked -
- Editing and Planning Installation - November
- Final Assesment - 14/12/17 and 05/12/17
Idea Development so far
First Shoot
We did the first shoot mainly thinking about negative space, clean looking photographs. We where inspired mainly by Gem Fletcher, Alma Haser and Sam Kweskin.
Looking back at it I can see we are both not very open as people and you can clearly see how we arent comfortable enough in front of each other or the camera. Also looking back it was hard to set a white balance because of our skin tones being different. As for editing it was hard to colour correct and have a similar feel to the photos.
These are some of the edits that we tried out.
We agreed to storyboard the shoots and to have a clearer idea of what we want the shoots to lead us to.
Second Shoot
We took these taking in consideration the colour red and the connotations it has. We tried being more open to each other in front of the camera and also to portray "red" feelings. But we found that our light source wasn't the best for the pictures we where trying to take as the light was too harsh and it removed a lot of detail, plus grain in the photos.
We thought about other light sources such as gels, projectors, etc.
We looked back at our research and tried to edit some of the pictures the way Rosanna Jones or Alma Haser did - in a more physical sense. Se we printed some of the pictures and here is what we created.
The quality isnt the best but some of the outcomes we are pleased with and we will attempt to try this type of "editing" in future shoots.
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