CPSA Capstone Journal

My process of capturing the beauty of women of color through poetry and pictures

[beautyofrepresentation]

March 18th, 2017: These are some of my favorite pictures from my last weekend of photoshoots. I have not edited them yet, but I doubt they will need much editing. Each of these women were so much fun shoot, like all 10 of the other women. What I think makes these pictures really special to me is the fact that they were all shot in the same day, and even though Alexia and I were extremely tired by the end of it, we just had such a good energy thought out all of it. I can’t wait to edit them and see the final products. 

[beautyofrepresentation]

Can I try again?

March 17th, 2017: 

On my personal Tumblr I reblog images like that one very often and I actually I found the images below when I was scrolling through my Tumblr. Images like these, are where I get a lot of my inspiration for how I compose my pictures for the capstone. I really want to capture the essence and personality of these beautiful women while also having a lingering sense mystery. I really liked the picture with the girl in braids because there is mystery to her eyes that is also very inviting and it makes you what to know about her. The photographer was able to capture that by blurring the background, drawing attention to eyes and the face. I don’t know if model posed herself or if the photographer posed her, but for both pictures the poses played a big role in how I interpreted the two pictures.

I actually found this picture set right after my last photoshoot and I wish had found it sooner because I would have played a bit more with story and how these images are interacting with one another to inform the viewer about the model. If only I could a have redo….

[blackgrlsaremagic]

@bvy.tvth

[beautyofrepresentation]

Am I being too hard on myself: Choosing the right ones

March 16th, 2016: 

I overthink and analyze almost everything, especially when it comes to what I create. I am also a self-proclaimed perfectionist and I can sit there for hours fussing over one detail until its exactly they way I like, or until someone sees me going crazy and intervenes. Each woman had 50-150 photos taken of her, and and after every few photoshoot, I sit and look at all the pictures that I have taken of the models and select the ones that I think are the best, composition wise and do the women justice. I do this so that when it comes time to give them the raw pictures, after the capstone is finished, they’ll have a folder of “20 best shots” that they can do what they want with them and post them to Instagram. or Facebook.  Being the self critical person that I am, out of, lets say 100 pictures, I would only chose 20 of them that fit my personal criteria. 

On snow day i was going through the most recent pictures from that weekend and I was a bit disappointed in myself. The three women that I shot that day did a great job, but I don’t think their effort was reflected in the pictures that I had taken of them. In my opinion my composition of some of the frames were poor. I started complaining that I didn’t do these women justice in the pictures that I took of them and that there are only a handful of pictures that I like. Alexia overheard me and she looked at my laptop screen and said,”Oooh I like that one, it’s pretty” to a pictures that I had the opposite reaction to. She asked me what I thought was so bad about it and some of the others, and while i was explaining my discontent with the composition and lighting, she shook her head saying, “What are you talking about these pictures look great. Merissa that’s what photoshop is for, you can edit these. You took over 100 pictures so that you could have options. Stop being so self-critical. You did a great job.” 

Over the course of this phase of the project, Alexia has been really great partner when it comes to making me take a step back and look at the pictures for what they are, and not what I want them to be. 

[thebeautymodel]

Zero + Maria Cornejo Fall 2017

[desifemalemodells]

[aliyahleshae]

I never smile, but I love me flaws and all

[beautyofrepresentation]

Capstone Agreement

CPSA 250: College Park Arts Scholars Capstone: Joint Project, Spring 2017

Name: Alexia Owusu-Sakyi & Merissa Collins

Email: [email protected] & [email protected]

Advisor: Harold

Weekly Meeting Time: Merissa: Wed. @ 5 PM & Alexia: Thurs. @2 PM

Purpose/Mission Statement: Put this in the form of a few sentences about what you hope to accomplish this semester. What will the end result of your project be? What will you learn or gain from the experience? Do you have other goals?

We plan to expose the underrepresented beauty within colored women using visual art and cinematography (Alexia), as well as photography and poetry (Merissa). By conducting these interviews, both of us want to learn more about the struggles we face, but through the life of others; we want to understand the perspectives of our peers.

Learning Objectives:

These are more specific than the mission statement. Be sure your objectives are clearly stated and respond to what you expect to do, learn, and experience as a result this project. Please list at least three. These should scaffold toward your final project.

Merissa:

I, along with Alexia, will conduct interviews with 15 women of color.

I will photograph these 15 women of color.

I will use editing software, such as Photoshop, to enhance their natural beauty.

I will collect the best images into a 15-20 based off the interviews and my own personal feelings of the idea of representation.  

Alexia:

I, along with Merissa, will conduct interviews with 15 women of color.

I will take what the women told us to create individual watercolor portraits

Depending on what they say, I may or may not include other elements in these portraits.

I will edit the videos captured during the interview and include voice overs from Merissa’s poems, creating a “behind the scenes”-like video lasting at least 4 minutes.

Workshop Process:

How will you complete the project? What research or preliminary work is required? What materials will you need? What steps will you take to create the finished project? How will you perform or present your work?

We have created a google doc where we documented all our preliminary ideas (i.e. people to ask, possible shooting locations, emails to send out, who said yes or no, etc.)

We created an excel document where we made a sign-up sheet available: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PGp7Hviv5DCxJRIntE5vPUBSnTem3laI_KvGFfNVT7A/edit?usp=sharing

We will do research on things how colorism, representation issues outside of black women, the affect the media has on self-esteem, etc.

We need two separate cameras for photography and video, an external sound recorder, external hard drives for extra space, tripods for the cameras, batteries, access to photo and video editing software, watercolor paint and brushes, paper, pen and inspiration.

.

How will you document your work and research in your process binder/notebook?

We will both take process pictures and screenshots of our work and post them to our respective Tumblr websites.

Please include a list of resources you have used/may use in the planning and execution of your project. You may include books, websites, music, video, personal communication, etc.

Resources:

Atlas of Beauty

posing models

YouTube for examples of cinematography

Tumblr and Pinterest pages as inspiration for lighting

Lib.umd.edu

Merissa’s high school photography teacher

Project Timeline: Include dates and deadlines set by the course syllabus, as well as self-imposed benchmarks for what you would like to have done at certain points in the semester.

February 10: Deadline for interview sign up.

February 12: Being photoshoots

Each photoshoot date can be seen in the excel google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PGp7Hviv5DCxJRIntE5vPUBSnTem3laI_KvGFfNVT7A/edit?usp=sharing

After each interview, we will begin our individual projects.

Compile important parts of each interview for the behind the scenes video

February 18: Have a good amount of research done about the internal mechanisms of underrepresentation and how it affects women of color mentally/physically.

February 22 – March 1: Have some of work finished

Have at least 2-3 watercolor portraits finished or close to done. If not, than at least have the sketch and base colors

Have those who have been interviewed photo-edited

Have a basic script of video (choose music, what goes where, etc.

Spring Break: For those who could not make any of the times made available, Spring Break photoshoots will be made available 

have half of artwork, photography, and poetry finished

have a solid plan for the video.

Begin planning out showcase poster (get all materials)

April 1: Finish all interviews

April 12-20: Have about 75-80% of work done.

Wrap up video editing

April 27: MUST BE FINISHED ALL WORK!!

[beautyofrepresentation]

Better Late Than Never

This is my first post in my capstone journal, which I should have posted in a while ago, buy hey, better late than never right? 

Alexia and I are well into the photoshoot and interview process of the capstone. We’ve talked to 5 out of the 14 girls so far and each interview/photoshoot has been a different experience. Each of these young women bring such an amazing energy on set and working with them and Alexia has been so much fun. 

I’m not quite sure how I want to structure this journal. I’m debating if I should do a post after every photoshoot and interview or whenever I feel inspired to write about the process. I am going to be posting a few before and after shots and some of my attempts at photoshop/light room. I prefer writing my process for things with pencil and paper, so I will most likely write things out and then retype them here on tumblr.