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“Let’s keep an open mind about just what constitutes as a portrait, and consider the possibility that any picture that enriches, enlivens and elucidates our understanding of an individual or their relationship with the artist may be termed as a portrait whether it presents ‘likeness’ or not.

Gillanders, 2004

this is a quote from the book ‘The photographic portrait’ which i feel sums up my essay and research behind it as i feel like people are getting more of an open mind as time goes on and as photography develops further.

Being queer feeling Muslim // Format festival 17 Exhibition

This was an exhibition i saw whilst at format photography festival 17 i loved this project as it was very relevant to my current research for both my essay and further research into identity. i feel like seeing this project being exhibited helped put my previous research and essay into context. Lia Darjes’s body of work ‘Being queer feeling Muslim’ was presented with her images and then quotes and stories from the subject as their own point of view. Although this project is not about hiding the identity of the person

this looks into religion and what it means to people and this also combines the research i did on being gay in certain countries and another photographer who looked into this Laurence Rasti. who showed how serious the issue of being gay in Iran. which Samira, toronto also highlights these issues and she immigrated to Canada

seeing this exhibition gave me a few ideas for cop3 looking into religion and peoples stories possibly carrying on researching into identity and religion.

#task 6

Cop3-Task 6

https://themighty.com/2016/01/photographer-explores-her-depression-with-vulnerable-self-portraits/

Aleksandra Stone looks at depression and vulnerability which i feel like that could be an interesting start to an essay about women in photography showing vulnerability issues

i also have been looking into carrying on with my research into identity but changing it to look more into the body and how the body is seen. how identity is shown through the body?

http://mymodernmet.com/rosanna-jones-skin/

i possibly want to look into the idea of body image and appearance relating to identity Rosanna Jones looks at how appearance affects identity which i though was very interesting and i feel inspired looking at her work.

i am still quite unsure of what direction i want to go down with my cop3 however i’m currently liking the idea of looking into appearance, identity and the body.

#cop 3 #task 6

Final images- task 7

these are my final outcomes for the visual side of my essay i am very pleased with how they have turned out. i decided to shoot on 35mm colour film as i wanted to create a grainy but colourful set of images with a slightly deeper meaning that what is first seen when you see my series of images. i started to research photographers for my essay and why they were covering the faces of their subjects some issues were too dangerous to be shown for the consequences some were portraying the feeling of loneliness. i liked the idea of covering the subjects face or distorting the full identity of the model as the theme of the project is based on the mental health stigma that is attached with men and the idea that people only see that women have these issues so i wanted to raise awareness and the model suffers from these issues so i asked him a few questions

Subject interview

Q1: how do you feel when you’re dealing with mental health issues?

A: “i feel very alone sometimes, sometimes quite angry, it’s quite scary when you’re going through stuff as people always presume i’m doing okay so i have to be very tough and sort things out by myself.”

Q2: do you ever speak to anyone about the problems you have?

A: “not really sometimes i speak to my close friends but i try not to talk about it too much to anyone as i think people may judge me.”

Q3: why is that?

A: “i’m not sure if i’m being honest i just think it’s not really talked about that much”

after speaking with my subject i decided that a forest would be a perfect setting for my shoot as it has a lot of open space and i could create the shot as far away as i wanted. i wanted to use the idea that he had spoken about, loneliness and create portraits based on the fact that men don’t really like to speak about their issues that much.

i first decided to shoot pictures of the subject smoking with a close up of his hands i feel like hands say more about a person than sometimes their face i love the final outcome of that print and he had said to me that he sometimes smokes alot more when his anxiety is bad so i wanted to show a way that some people cope with their issues.

image 2 i wanted to capture the loneliness in this image i wanted the tree to be the main focal point of the image so that the subject blended into the background and was distorted to show the idea of him being trapped within his own thoughts

image 3 i wanted the photograph to be quite similar to the 2nd one however i wanted him to still not be fully in shot but be the focal point of the image. i like the way you can tell the model is looking directly at the camera through the leaves it’s a way to show that hes trying to get the attention of someone.

#visuals

Printing

i printed my series of images i’m quite happy with the quality of printing i decided to print onto satin paper at A3.

i wanted to print at A3 so the themes of loneliness and feeling trapped with the issues are more realistic it creates the idea of the subject looking even smaller on a bigger piece of paper

i decided to work out the sequencing for my images i think the blue tones of the images work really well together and i wanted them to flow into one the idea of the colours going from a lighter green to darker green i thought looked the best. and i think that going from very close up to far away was the best decision as it shows the camera being further and further away from the subject reinforcing the fact that he’s alone.

if i was to print my images again i would possibly test printing them at A2 or A1 which may emphasise being alone even more however overall i’m very happy with my decision to print A3 as i feel like it works very well and doesn’t necessarily need to be massive unless i was exhibiting in a gallery format where i would want my images bigger as they would be shown in a large room and it would make my model look lost/trapped in the forest.

#visuals

Task 7-Test shoot

This was the first shoot i did based on the fact i was trying to hide the subjects identity. i was looking into photographers such as Delaney Allen and Laurence Rasti the issue and meaning behind the images are different however i was inspired by the ways they covered the subjects faces. my visual pieces are inspired by the mental health stigma that men don’t have these issues and i wanted to create this body of work to create awareness of the loneliness and the way people feel men aren’t effected with mental health.

i didn’t want to show the subject’s face properly as it is a very personal issue but i wanted the images to reflect the idea of feeling trapped and the idea of the issues building up inside. i wanted to be quite far away from the subject to insinuate the feeling of being alone.

i wanted the movement within the image so it looks like hes trying to escape from the issues however i feel like i want to try out using objects to see the different effects.

i am planning to do another shoot with the same subject for my final images i want the idea of his thoughts being blurred and the idea of being trapped to look like its taking over him maybe with the use of objects covering his face for example a tree, leaves, a sheet, his shirt.

#visual

Hossein Fatemi-Veiled truths task 7

Fatemi is a key part of my essay as he covers his subjects faces with their veils and the issues surrounding the country such as they can be fined or arrested for not wearing a hijab when in public which up to 100 women everyday go through this. i looked at this project as it’s about religion and the issues however i feel like this project makes a statement about the fact women can’t freely express themselves and be who they want. as every women is supposed to wear the hijab their individuality could be seen that its being taken away. the women all have different coloured, different patterned hijabs which i feel could create a sense of individuality and a sense of being able to express themselves in some way.

#task 7 #artist

Laurence Rasti- There are no homosexuals in iran

this was very interesting to research as i didn’t know how serious the punishment was in iran if they were caught being a homosexual it is punishable by death in some cases others are made to choose trans-sexuality or leave the country.

she photographed the refugees that had left the country as they felt this was their only option to be who they are. the images are eye catching with the colourful materials and the use of objects. she decided to cover the faces to create anonymity for the subjects to be comfortable and for the project not to be dangerous. she created this project to show awareness of the LGBTQ community and prove the former Iranian president wrong as he said “in Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country” speaking to Columbia university.

this body of work inspired my visual pieces with the objects used to cover the subjects face and by some of them being shot on location not in the studio which i really liked.

Task 6

as part of Task 6 i am carrying on looking into this subject as i’m very interested in this series of work and some similar surrounding homosexuality if i was going to carry on something on this topic for my cop 3 i was thinking about looking into the theme of homophobia not sure of what surrounding the topic but i want to find out more into issues with homosexuality.

#Task 7 #task 6 #artist

Delaney Allen-Painting a portrait Task 7

Allen creates self portraits based on the subject of being ‘alone’ he uses objects, materials to hide and distort his face which creates a feeling of loneliness and sadness within the images. when researching into Delaney Allen what i liked about his body of work that he had mixed portraits, Still lifes and landscapes together in a project called ‘painting the portrait’ all images had the same theme of ‘alone’ and in my essay i spoke about how he uses the images to create a different or alternative appearance/identity for himself in a way as no one has ever seen his face in the portraits.which makes the viewer wonder what he looks like and makes them start to piece the images together to create their own made up identity of Delaney Allen.

#task 7 #artists

Nabil Boutros-Egyptians task 7

He looked at appearance and changing identity to become someone else he did this by growing out his hair and facial hair and he dyed and shaved which all gave him different looks along with different clothing and the range of outfits also helped create a new identity. this project was all about questioning identity.

i loved this project researching into this was incredibly interesting as at first i thought it was all different men however it’s not till you look closer and read about it that you realise it it Boutros being all the different characters.

hes not necessarily hiding the identity however i believe he is creating new identities by masking the old one which i think relates well to my essay as it’s something slightly different from the identity being hidden but he is still hiding his to become someone new in a way.

The idea of my project came from the book title ‘This is a portrait if i say so’ by Anne Collins Goodyear, Jonathon Frederick Walz and Kathleen Merrill Campagnolo which is a book about identity in american art from 1912-present day.it has helped with ideas for my essay as the title alone is what i wanted to say within my essay.

‘We think of the face as an essential element in a portrait. It’s through faces that we know each other, that we are given our identity. But can a picture of part of the body be a portrait?’

This is one of the quotes where i got my starting point for my essay i decided that the idea of hidden identity was very interesting and there was lots of different reasons for people hiding their identity that you wouldn’t initially know from looking at the body of work.

#task 6

Task 4-Essay structure

Essay plan

Introduction (Around 500 words)

-Use starting point of this essay will discuss...

-Outline writers/theorists, photographers, artists etc that will be used to form a discussion in the essay such as Laurence Rasti, Hossein Fatemi, David Bate

-Show that I will discuss identity and hidden identity within portraiture

-Talk about how portraiture and self-portraiture has changed over the years

-Point of the essay is to understand and discuss the change of portraiture/self-portraiture

-From straight up portraits to experimental bodies of work

-how/why it has changed surrounding identity and how/why people choose to hide it/distort it what issues are involved

-Introduce the idea of essay looking at hidden identity

Key terms that are important to your area of exploration

· Hidden identity -why

· Appearance

· Religion

· Sexuality

· Identity

· Portraiture- what is a portrait

Main Body Text (Around 2000-2250 words)

-Talk about photographers in detail

-Show images of the work describe them

-Make sure you use quotes from books, websites etc.

-Reason behind the body of work

-Why they’ve hidden the identity

Conclusion (Around 250-500 words)

-What you’ve explored and discovered

-Overall thoughts- My opinion

-Sum up photographers work make them connect

-Relate back to introduction

Task 3-Literature review

Harvard Referencing

Gillanders, R., 2004. The photographic portrait Devon: David & Charles

Bate, D., 2009. Photography The Key Concepts. Oxford: Berg

Task 2-Key text

Bate, D., 2009. photography The key concepts.Oxford: Berg

the writer of this book is David Bate he is a professor of photography who has wrote many books such as photography: The key concepts and Photography and surrealism sexuality colonialism and social dissent. the writing of Photography the key concepts is particularly relevant to my essay title as i’m looking into identity and portraiture which Bate speaks about in section 4 of the book ‘Looking at portraits’ He discusses the elements of a portrait what facial expressions mean, what the clothing signifies, the way they’re posed and the location. how there are portraits everywhere you look from legal identity, studio portraits, adverts, film, tv, media, social media

‘the portrait became a means of identification of the population’

‘portraits fix our identity in whats essentially an art of description’

‘the modern panoply of portraiture is the direct consequence of that historical development of photography’

i could use these quotes in my essay to emphasise the importance of portraiture and the growth that happened within photography in the nineteenth century the way he speaks about how identity grew is a good starting point for my essay as i want to show the change in portraiture.

Literature search-Task 1

For my literature search i decided to start of by using google Scholar to research key words such as; identity, Appearance, hidden identity, identity photography, religion identity. i also searched these words within google books to give me an idea of where to start looking for books to read. within my search i found books such as Liz Wells The photography reader, David Bate Photography The key concepts which was great for reading about identity and portrature in general. i then search the same key words within google books and i found Robin Gillanders The photographic portrait which i was able to find in the university libary this book gave me an insight into portraiture and the way people see portraiture for example the pages on ‘What is portraiture’ were particularly useful for my introduction.

here is some of the screenshots of my key words that i used to do my literature search

Bate, D., 2016. Photography: the key concepts. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Lury, C., 1998. Prosthetic culture: Photography, memory and identity. Psychology Press.

Wells, L., Barthes, R., Berger, J., Rosler, M. and Sontag, S., 2003. The photography reader. Routledge.

Barthes, R., 1981. Camera lucida: Reflections on photography. Macmillan.

Loewenberg, I., 1999. Reflections on self-portraiture in photography. Feminist Studies, 25(2), pp.399-408.

Bate, D., 2004. Photography and surrealism: sexuality, colonialism and social dissent. IB Tauris.

#Task 1 #literature search

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