MAPS AND NETWORKS

DEVELOPMENT

FIRST SHOOT

This whole shoot was more of a taster to see what type of lighting we wanted, we had to achieve something that would compliment both our skin tones. We used a plain white background to make the skin contrast more and to really appreciate the undertones of them. By the end of it we felt like we needed to story board the shots to have a clearer idea of what we wanted. We had to nail down what we wanted to say with our project. 

EDITS

These are some of the digital edits that I tried out. But I did not feel satisfied after finishing them, so we tried to approach the idea from a different editing perspective.

MIXED MEDIA EDITS

These are the physical edits I created, I printed some of the photos and I decided to see what I could achieve.  

This shoot is very clean looking and minimal but strays very far away from our concept. Also the lighting is a bit too harsh so some pictures turned burnt out. It was difficult to find camera settings that would compliment both our skin tones as well. Overall, this was a successful first try just to get a hang of how to use the studio and equipment. 

SECOND SHOOT

For the second shoot we knew that we wanted our photography to be a coping mechanism, the action of taking pictures of each other as an outlet of bottled up feelings and frustration. We started opening up to each other more and we knew that we wanted to portray emotions of emergency and passion. We sketched and storyboarded to have a clearer idea of what we wanted. This time we wanted the photographs to show the emotion, so Joe brought a red LED light strip that we used as our main light source; but this not only made us feel dizzy after a while, it posed the difficulty of low light photography, so we where presented with blurry pictures or very noisy ones. 

DIGITAL EDITS 

Joe created these edits.

MIXED MEDIA EDITS 

These are some of the physical edits that I created, mainly collage art. 

Even though the photographs turned out very intense and "angry" we thought that this was diving head first into something we were not ready for. These are the complete opposite to the first photographs we took and felt more violent than anything else. We also decided to change the light source, we would use a projector or gels for the next shoot. Overall this was a shoot where it felt that we still where struggling to define our idea. 

THIRD SHOOT

For this shoot we decided to book out a projector to use as our main lighting source. We then created some graphics to project onto us mainly trying to merge our first two shoots. We wanted it to be more crisp, very high contrast and more planned. This shoot was a successful one as we got what we planned but after sitting down and looking through the photographs we where not satisfied and it did not feel like a finalised idea. 

This shoot felt like one step closer to what we wanted. It was a step on the right direction but it was not the final idea. We decided to back track a little bit and decided to add the colour red and the "emotions" through editing. 

DIGITAL EDITS 

Joe created these edits.

FINAL SHOOT

We made several final decisions before we went into the studio this time. We decided to photograph in portrait format, we would mostly get head shots and body part photographs. We wanted to show a documentation of us trying to grow, to show that we can not handle emotions but that in the process we got closer and created friendship, we wanted to help each other into being open and connected. This is a project about shared emotions and communication. We wanted to stop "othering" each other and start "liberating". This whole shoot happened as we where experiencing a very stressful period in our lives so we leaned on to each other for advice and support, and we tried our best to photograph this happening. 

These photographs felt like more of a final step. We finally had our photographs that portrayed what we where trying to explain to each other. But we still wanted to add that extra bit where we could "see" emotion. So we decided to take it into editing. 

DIGITAL EDITS

Joe took into Photoshop the photos we took and created some amazing edits. They create that connection we are trying to portray and the emotions we are trying to talk about. 

MIXED MEDIA EDITS

Instead of just collaging this time we decided to add paint, inks and other materials to add to the pictures.

FINAL OUTCOME

We came up with two different ideas to present our photography.

This is the final stage of our project, after all the experimenting and all of the shoots, our efforts brought us to these two final images.

The outline of this series was to make a studio style photo series that will act as a representation of our inability to open up to others, as well as the documentation of us coming closer together and overcoming our fear. The series tackles language barriers, gender, otherness and our differences as human beings. We started the project being acquaintences but finished it with a close knit friendship. 

We are in a place where we can communicate without words, there is no need for spoken language. This is the experience that we are trying to represent. Its only to our knowledge how we got to this point; but creating this connection in a visual and physical form was hard to get to.  We had to experiment, shoot, create and scratch ideas, but we finally got to where we where trying to get.

The way this whole project was finalized represents us as people perfectly - it is us trying to communicate that we can "talk" without words, without using words.

Overall this project acts as a representation of our initial inability to open up to others, as well as the documentation of us coming closer together and overcoming our fear. These portraits represent unspoken communication represented through negative space. This is a puzzle piece about nonverbal language.

 

 

PERSONAL EVALUATION

Overall this project has been very interesting to be part of. This project has helped me develop my photography skills, trying to overcome all the obstacles that each shoot brought; it has also helped in my digital editing skills as I have learnt a lot from Joe. 

I also have rediscovered my love for fine art and mixed media arts, I have studied fine art before and getting back into painting and cutting and creating more physical outcomes was a very refreshing experience. But also I have gained a friend and a working partner that I truly appreciate because he is a person in which I can rely on emotionally and as a team mate. We worked smoothly and there was good communication of ideas and critical responses to each thing we created. 

 I would say this was a very successful project that I am very pleased with and that helped me develop as an artist and as a person. 

10/10 would work with Joe again.