DISGUISEFor my end of year 10 topic I have chosen the theme disguise.
I am fascinated to be exploring this subject by researching other artists, developing my own ideas and experimenting with photographic styles and techniques, particularly around peoples alter egos. I have a personal interest in this theme as I enjoy cosplay, which is when people dress up as characters from their favourite shows, films, comics, etc. I have created a mind map which outlines my early thoughts about this topic and how I want to communicate it and some of my ideas around what are different ways to create disguise. See my Pinterest board for artists who have inspired my project. http://uk.pinterest.com/elsafishstick/disguise-project-inspiration/ |
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Richard Burbridge
Richard Burbridge is a British photographer who has a very extravagant unique style, that appeals to me.
His photographs make me think of theatre and drama and flamboyant musicals or horror films They can often have quite a sinister feel, in that they make you feel uncertain about what you are looking at. His work for fashion companies and magazines is not the mainstream photography in this field and many of his images are quite surprising and shocking. |
This photograph by Richard Burbridge is very interesting - it opens up lots of questions, such as:
You notice a lot of detail in the photo, that appear as very sharply in focus, for example: the freckles and marks and lines on her skin, the collarbone, the way the hair is poking out - you can see the individual strands. A prominent feature are her eyes, which are not covered by the mask. When you look at it you strain to work out what her expression is. When you look closely you see the bolts, which make it seem like the mask is has been attached to her head. Looking at this image has made me think about how an ordinary portrait can be turned into something entirely different, how a mask can completely change or remove the parts of a person that show who they are. |
Lorenzo Vitturi
Lorenzo Vitturi, Dalston Anatomy, The Photographers gallery exhibition 2014
Artist and photographer Vitturi has done portraits of people he met walking around the street market and has used objects from the market to add layers to the images and then re-photographed them. This group of portraits made me think about my project “Disguise” and how to use objects to to obscure someones face but also to represent them When I was researching Vitturi I came across other examples of his work that also related to the theme of disguise. I find the picture of the painted horse particularly interesting and I am intrigued by the idea of animals being disguised in unusual ways. |
Cindy Sherman
I discovered the modern artist Cindy Sherman and was fascinated by her unusual photographs of herself. I think she has a comical and rather weird style where she makes herself look quite grotesque. In some pictures she disguises herself as the subject of famous paintings. She uses a lot of make up and props to create these outlandish images. These themes make me think about how my photographs could show an alter ego, and using costumes and make up to disguise the person in them, and how a mask can create strong feelings as you try to make sense of them. They have inspired me to try to create interesting portraits using make up and masks as disguises in my own style. |
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First photo shoot
Here is a gallery of my images, including the ones that did not turn out as i had expected.
My first idea was to do a photo shoot with my friend, letting her choose different costumes to play with the idea of an alter ego. I wanted to show her disguised as someone else and at the same time showing aspects of her own personality.
As someone who does a lot of drama, she is used to creating different personalities for herself and I wanted to capture this in a playful way.
I took the photographs using my dslr against a white wall. I held the camera and used the sport function which has a fast shutter speed for capturing movement. Because I couldn't keep up and some of the pictures are not in focus and I didn't feel the images were sharp enough
Looking back over them I saw that the composition in many of them cut off important aspects of the costumes.
The lighting is not as bright as it should have been, meaning that her face is often in shadow.
If I were to use brighter lights and a higher exposure this would give a brighter and more defined image.
I like the quirkiness of these photos, I feel they have captured a feeling of fun whilst playing the different roles.
My favourite is the witch costume.It has the best composition and I like the contrast of the hat against the white background. Her facial expression is comical and suits the costume and the way her hands appear gives the picture a sense of drama.
My first idea was to do a photo shoot with my friend, letting her choose different costumes to play with the idea of an alter ego. I wanted to show her disguised as someone else and at the same time showing aspects of her own personality.
As someone who does a lot of drama, she is used to creating different personalities for herself and I wanted to capture this in a playful way.
I took the photographs using my dslr against a white wall. I held the camera and used the sport function which has a fast shutter speed for capturing movement. Because I couldn't keep up and some of the pictures are not in focus and I didn't feel the images were sharp enough
Looking back over them I saw that the composition in many of them cut off important aspects of the costumes.
The lighting is not as bright as it should have been, meaning that her face is often in shadow.
If I were to use brighter lights and a higher exposure this would give a brighter and more defined image.
I like the quirkiness of these photos, I feel they have captured a feeling of fun whilst playing the different roles.
My favourite is the witch costume.It has the best composition and I like the contrast of the hat against the white background. Her facial expression is comical and suits the costume and the way her hands appear gives the picture a sense of drama.
Second photo shoot
I really liked the playfulness of the photographers I researched and wanted to get that feeling in my photographs.
I also liked the idea of using the same model for the different experiments to show how one person can be disguised in many different ways. I was particularly interested in how Cindy Sherman used bizarre make up and how colourful the images are.
My second photo shoot was playing with make up and face paints and was a practice for taking portrait photographs. I used the portrait setting on my camera, I manually focussed and adjusted the aperture and shutter speed, as I wanted the images to be sharply in focus and look more detailed than my first . I really liked the way the colours have quite a pastel feel and of the light which comes from using a lamp with an orange shade.
I thought the second photoshoot was an improvement on my first one as the lighting worked better and the portraits are taken much nearer so you see more detail in the face. Also using a tripod and a slower shutter speed made a big difference in the picture quality.
I also liked the idea of using the same model for the different experiments to show how one person can be disguised in many different ways. I was particularly interested in how Cindy Sherman used bizarre make up and how colourful the images are.
My second photo shoot was playing with make up and face paints and was a practice for taking portrait photographs. I used the portrait setting on my camera, I manually focussed and adjusted the aperture and shutter speed, as I wanted the images to be sharply in focus and look more detailed than my first . I really liked the way the colours have quite a pastel feel and of the light which comes from using a lamp with an orange shade.
I thought the second photoshoot was an improvement on my first one as the lighting worked better and the portraits are taken much nearer so you see more detail in the face. Also using a tripod and a slower shutter speed made a big difference in the picture quality.
Third photo shoot
For the third photo shoot I used a collection of masks. I took my inspiration from Steinberg and Morath's images of masks I took a lot more time and care researching and composing the pictures and I think this has paid off. I made sure the framing was better and made sure there were no shadows on her face. I also decided to use a tripod to get really good image quality and I love the way the detail from the masks shows through. I also experimented with black and white images to make the photographs more dramatic in keeping with the dramatic masks.
I cropped the top of the head in most of the photographs as I think this emphasises the face and mask more. This was a technique I learnt when I was doing my work experience at a photographic studio.
On the original pictures the images were darker and had shadows on the face, because the lighting was quite low. I used a flash on some of the pictures and I improved this by editing the images in Photoshop to make them brighter and reduce the shadows. This is shown in the example below where the original is much darker.
I cropped the top of the head in most of the photographs as I think this emphasises the face and mask more. This was a technique I learnt when I was doing my work experience at a photographic studio.
On the original pictures the images were darker and had shadows on the face, because the lighting was quite low. I used a flash on some of the pictures and I improved this by editing the images in Photoshop to make them brighter and reduce the shadows. This is shown in the example below where the original is much darker.
First final outcome proposal
My idea from the photoshoot was to have an image that used make up to disguise the face with interesting shading, tones and colours. I wanted it it be quite close up and have a slightly unreal quality so you are not exactly sure what you are looking at and wanted to improve on the ideas I had from my second photo shoot.
I think the photograph has achieved what I intended, in that the make up gives a surreal quality to the picture and it has a light, playful feel to it. I am really happy with how the colours came out especially the way the brown under the eye and cheek picks out the brown of the eyes. The background complements the pale gluey-green of the face. There is lots of texture in the picture and the make up on the skin brings out the contrast in texture to the natural skin. I also like the way the eye and eyebrow on the made up side contrast with the unmade up side
Alternative final outcome
Another idea I had was to take an image with the masks but this time to make it even more dramatic and expand on the idea of making it black and white. I wanted to choose an unusual mask to make a striking image. I chose this black and white mask as it has a lot of textures and character and a strange two-headed shape. I wanted the picture to have a slightly menacing feel, like those in Richard Burbridges photographs.
I am very happy with this image, as it captures the dramatic style of the mask and has created quite a surreal effect. I thought that the image looked better in grayscale as you can really see the contrasts and different tones, especially as the mask has the two contrasting sides.
I think it succeeds in being slightly menacing, as you know it is one face underneath but the two faces looking different ways trick you . Also the way the eyes appear through the holes makes it look creepy.
I think it succeeds in being slightly menacing, as you know it is one face underneath but the two faces looking different ways trick you . Also the way the eyes appear through the holes makes it look creepy.
Final evaluation
I enjoyed researching the theme of disguise as I really enjoy dressing up, and experimenting with different looks in make up and hair. One of my passions is going to conventions where people dress up in cosplay - so it is a subject that is close to my heart!
My objective was to use the inspiration from Saul Steinberg and Richard Burbridge to create my own portrait images. When I discovered the photographs of Cindy Sherman I was excited as they had such an unusual quality that really appealed to me. I thought I could incorporate the ideas into a series of photographs of my friend in various costumes, face paints and masks
I learnt that by researching and taking time and care over how I planned the photo shoots I was able to achieve the style of photographs that I wanted. For the two final outcomes the experiments I had done using my dslr on different settings and using different backgrounds and lighting allowed me to create two images that I am very happy with, and I used Photoshop to refine them to exactly how I wanted them.
My objective was to use the inspiration from Saul Steinberg and Richard Burbridge to create my own portrait images. When I discovered the photographs of Cindy Sherman I was excited as they had such an unusual quality that really appealed to me. I thought I could incorporate the ideas into a series of photographs of my friend in various costumes, face paints and masks
I learnt that by researching and taking time and care over how I planned the photo shoots I was able to achieve the style of photographs that I wanted. For the two final outcomes the experiments I had done using my dslr on different settings and using different backgrounds and lighting allowed me to create two images that I am very happy with, and I used Photoshop to refine them to exactly how I wanted them.
Alternative idea
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Whilst I was researching and photographing for this project, I came across pictures of native Americans and was struck by the bold colours and shapes of their tribal warpaint.
I thought i could take inspiration and use it for another project idea in which I will try to recreate some of the styles and use it in my theme of disguise to show a different aspect of the idea of people concealing their faces |
Alternative idea and process
After researching the native american tribel paint I decided to try a modern twist, I drew up some designs that I could face paint on to friends at school. When I was happy with my designs I used face paints to transfer the pattens onto her face. I am very happy with the images as it captures the dramatic contrast of shades and completely alters how she looks, it gives quite a sinister look.