Photoshoot 3 – 22/10/14

This photo-shoot, I went into the studio feeling pretty confident!
After having two practice shoots, I felt that I was ready and feeling rather excited to be working with not only a different model but also one of my classmates. Unfortunately, my model scheduled so thankfully my friend kindly stepped in (and I owe her a Starbucks coffee too!).

I had the studio set up ready for when my model walked in, we discussed what underwear we thought would be best and got the camera settings correct on my DSLR and then moved straight onto my Hassleblad… WITHOUT CHANGING THE SETTINGS!! *Bangs head repeatedly on table*.
This was a big photographer doo-doo and after developing the film I couldn’t believe what I had done.

Luckily, the images came out OKish, however my film looked very thin and disappointing – I went ahead and scanned the images in and with doing a slight boost on the scanning software I was able to recover parts of the images.
See below!

I had to do a lot of post production on these images – boosting the levels and contrast and having play about with the tonal range of the images to to bring back some of the detail. The images came out quite gritty-looking which I find works really well.
There is something about these images that makes the subject look quite vulnerable just wearing her underwear – the way people gaze at women nude and a lady in just lingerie can be seen in two different ways. Seeing a nude lady makes us think about the natural beauty of a woman – the skin tones, the curves of the body and there is something aesthetically pleasing that makes us want to value women in art and photography  – after all, women in art posed in this manner has always been popular genre. But seeing a lady in just her underwear changes the gaze completely – something like this can be seen in a more sexual manner, just revealing parts of her body to the viewer makes her seem like she’s teasing and posing in certain positions makes her look more appealing.
I am disappointed that I made such a big mistake for this photo-shoot, HOWEVER, I have decided to take this shoot as a happy accident! The film came out thin and rather under-exposed but I can work with this to help my photographs become a part of the Fragmented Body as part of this project I am doing at university.

These photographs are cropped to a certain manner so I can focus on specific parts of the female body and therefore develop my technical skills to ‘fragment’ this further. There are a number of things that I can do with this film – I can leave it as it is and head straight into the Darkroom and see what results I can achieve from doing a straight print.
I can also manipulate the films further – bury it, burn it, place it into bleach and see what weird effects I achieve. I plan on talking to tutor and technicians to see who I can look at for references as part of my research (I am keeping a Research Development Book (RDB) ). If you have any names then please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Let’s see what I can achieve!

Photoshoot 2 – 15/10/14

Wednesday 15th October I carried out my first Hassleblad studio shoot with a female body.
I had a wonderful model called Annie who studies at my university and she kindly volunteered to model for my project (and I will hopefully be using her again!)

The photoshoot went rather smoothly and quickly and Annie was wonderful to work with.
I decided to treat this photo-shoot as another test shoot and only asked my model to stay in her underwear, purely because I wanted to work on the curves and her body shape and was still getting use to handling the Hassleblad itself.
I was stupid enough to forget my tripod so I hand held my camera which made the photoshoot go at a reasonably slow pace but I had music playing in the background and Annie and I were deep in conversation. I managed to develop the film (after much cursing in the darkroom trying to get my film onto the reel for developing) and was able to digitally scan everything using the fantastic facilities UCA has to offer.
Below are some of (what I feel are) my strongest images from this shoot.

I went away feeling rather confident working with people for this style of photoshoot, however I felt that I was ‘winging’ how I wanted Annie to stand in front of the camera. Even though I was giving her clear direction of how I wanted her I secretly had NO idea on how I wanted her to stand/sit and was pretty much treating everything like a photographic experiment.

After having a Progress Review with the Photography’s GTA and around 8 of my classmates we all agreed that I should probably research looking into body forms and shapes to help me get a clearer idea of how models posed for paintings and photographs (which I will no doubt create a moodboard on Pintrest for purely for this) and to also research into the Anatomy a bit more in depth too.
I was also suggested to take a visit to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum to look at all the statues and how they are carved and moulded.

NEXT STEPS:
* Look into body posture
* Look into body shapes – both feminine and masculine
* Look into Anatomy
*Try and plan a visit to the V&A.

Project Proposal

MY BRIEF:
For this project I am aiming to create a series of images focusing on the human body. By doing this I am hoping to develop my knowledge of nude photography further and to establish the difference between nude and ‘pornographic’ photography.
I will be creating these images under the influence of Jacques Lacan theory of the Mirror Stage paying particular attention to the Fragmented Image / Body and thus applying this theory to my photographic practice.
For my photo-shoots, I will be looking for both male and female models to par-take in test shoots and depending on how well I collaborate with them hopefully use them for my final photo-shoots. Because of the nature of my project, I will have to make sure that I have created model release forms to get the models full permission to take photographs and present them in front of my peers and my portfolio. When undergoing the shoots, I will be paying particular attention to lighting as well as the body itself, and shapes that we can position the body into to get the desired photograph while hopefully gaining further knowledge and confidence with working with others.
My photo-shoots will be taken on site of the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham – we have a small studio with lighting that is only accessed by using a key. This studio will be ideal for what I want to achieve as other members of the university will not be able to enter the studio without my permission and hopefully it will make my models feel more comfortable when working with me.
I aim to undergo at least two test-shoots to help me make the vital decisions of how I want my studio to be set up for my models, and undergo the minimum of 5 photo-shoots to create my final images. The chosen platform for creating my images will be on 120mm film – This project is ideal for me to get back into the darkroom environment and be experimental with my work. I felt 120mm film would be best suited as I can pick up on the detail and make larger prints than 35mm could do and it will give me the chance to explore using Hassleblad cameras – something I have never tried before and eager to learn new skills in a camera I am not confident in.

RESOURCES:
120mm Film, Photographic darkroom paper, Studio (Lockable), Lighting & Softboxes (all studios are equipped with this), Light Meters, Wireless Flash Sync Transmitters, Flash Sync Cable, Hassleblad, Digital SLR, Enough money from my budgeted weekly allowance to pay for film and printing costs.

SKILLS:
Recaping on how to use Hassleblad / Medium formats.
Photographic printing techniques – wet process photography and being experimental as well as fine digital printing,
Scanning negatives digitally, not only will I have a digital copy of the image but I will also have back-ups just in-case I lose my negative strips.
People skills – being professional around model that is outside of the university.

TIMETABLE (Rough Guide):
29/09/14 Group Tutorial
30/09/14 RDB
06/10/14 Test Photoshoot 1
07/10/14 File Management Workshop
13/10/14 RDB
14/10/14 Test Photoshoot 2
15/10/14 Photoshoot 1
20/10/14 Photoshoot 2
21/10/14 PROGRESS REVIEW 
27/10/14 Photoshoot 3
28/10/14 Workshop
03/11/14 Group Seminar
04/11/14 Photoshoot 4
10/11/14 Photoshoot 5
11/11/14 Individual Tutorial
17/11/14 PROGRESS REVIEW
24/11/14 Production
25/11/14 Individual Tutorial
01/12/14 PORTFOLIO SUBMISSION
02/12/14 & 03/12/14 ASSESSMENT REVIEW
08/12/14 & 09/12/14 FEEDBACK TUTORIALS

No. of hours scheduled activity: 100
No. of hours of independent study: 200

LEARNING OBJECTIVES & OUTCOMES:

LO1) Demonstrate skills in proposing, researching, initiating and evaluating a practical project.
LO2) Demonstrate the development of technical and practical skills appropriate for this project.
LO3) Demonstrate the ability to independently produce and present an ambitious photographic project.
LO4) Demonstrate further development of employability in photography in related areas.

OBJ 1) To develop a good understanding of Nude Photography.
OBJ 2) To develop a good understanding of Lacan’s theory of Fragmented Image/Fragmented Body.
OBJ 3) To produce a filled and detailed Research and Development Book that shows a clear understanding of how I advanced in my project.
OBJ 4) To produce a series of high quality printed photographs that demonstrate practice and technique to show in front of my peers.