Something else I wanted to develop and get better at was my writing skills. This is something I have never been good at and I am always trying my best to improve on my writing skills. I felt like I need to strengthen my skills even more. For the NMP project we had to write a self evaluation. After writing the artist statement I was quite proud of how much my writing skills had improved over the months of being at university. For the NMP I had to write a report/self evaluation. This is what I wrote for it and I was happy with the outcome of what I produced.
Body Reconstruction: Body Deconstruction
When doing the advanced research strategies module I did a proposal that was intended from the NMP. In this proposal I wrote about being interested in doing portraits and wasn’t quite sure of the exact kind I wanted to do. I then developed my proposal by deciding that body image was something I was the most interested in and wanted to pursue for my NMP. I felt like it was good for me at the beginning to not have one set idea so I could research into multiple things I found interesting and work out which would be the best for me to use. After researching artists, photographers, books and experimenting with ideas, I was able to narrow down things that weren’t working well for my NMP and areas which did. This helped me improve my NMP over time.
My initial proposal was quite vague even though I did have an idea that I was quite set on it wasn’t fully developed enough. I decided to look back at previous projects that I had enjoyed doing and one stood out to me which also had the theme of body image and the media. That helped me decide fully that the cosmetic surgery journey I proposed was going to be the route I was going to take. My project would involve following a friends journey whilst she was going to undergo a breast augmentation, but showing the side we don’t usually get to see, the non-glamourised side of it.
I was told that this idea of cosmetic surgery and seeing the other side to what we usually see would be a good project to use. I decided to document Sarah’s whole journey as I would be with her the whole time as it was, looking after her. My idea was to document everything from appointments, shopping, right after the surgery itself to scars and showing the struggle she would have after the surgery as it is a medical procedure and I think people forget this. I did some test shots of Sarah for advanced research strategies module to show how she was before the surgery. I planned to do all my images like I did with these test shots, mostly being in a set environment, full body shots so you could see everything but her face. After taking these images I decided this wasn’t the route to go down and went back to research more photographers who’s work I thought might influence my ideas as I was quite disappointed with the result I had. They just didn’t seem right and wasn’t how I had imagined them to look. On there own they looked alright but they weren’t flowing well as a series would have to.
After having feedback from Moria and her giving me a list of things I could look into for research I found inspiration from multiple sources. My main inspiration was a photographer named Lydia Goldblatt and her series called ‘Keeping Time’. Looking at her images from this series gave me the inspiration I needed and I knew what direction I wanted my project to go in. I really liked the way her images were making you want to see more and I loved how her subjects were positioned in her images. The framing of the image captured was exactly what I wanted my images to be like. I also liked how on nearly all the images you couldn’t see anyones face, this is something I had decided on right at the beginning of my project. I was never going to show Sarah’s face.
I then started to take my images as Sarah started her cosmetic journey. At first it was quite hard for us both to act like the camera wasn’t there. I was documenting her journey so didn’t want my images to be staged. After the first couple of weeks though we both got used to the camera being there and didn’t even notice it hardly anymore.
I started off from the beginning with her, taking images before the surgery, leading up to it. My main images were after her surgery showing the side where there is pain, the violent side to this kind of surgery. I wanted my images to have a feel where people weren’t sure what they were looking at, at first glance. I decided to take some of my images mainly the images of the scars in a very abstract way I feel like this gave them a very beautiful feel to them, where you wasn't quite sure what it was you were looking at but the curves and shapes were shown off perfectly.
After taking multiple images following her journey it then came to editing and I decided that my images worked best in black and white, my inspiration for this was from the photographer Edward Weston. He also took very abstract images all in black and white which made them stand out even more and you were able to see all the detail within the images. I felt like the black and white created the perfect contrast for my images.
At this point in my project I felt like everything was coming together how I wanted it to I had decided on a main focus for my project and started taking images that I really liked and thought worked well with what I wanted to achieve.
My final images show Sarah’s journey from beginning to end and show the changes that have been made to her body though out this time and the emotions that she has been through. Also the changes that have happened to her without her maybe realising or wanting them to. My series shows the struggle and violence behind these cosmetic procedures that we see in the media everyday as being easy and glamorous. I feel like my series will help people see what it is really like behind the closed doors after having such procedures, when we are trying to conform to society for ourselves or for others.
When doing the advanced research strategies module I did a proposal that was intended from the NMP. In this proposal I wrote about being interested in doing portraits and wasn’t quite sure of the exact kind I wanted to do. I then developed my proposal by deciding that body image was something I was the most interested in and wanted to pursue for my NMP. I felt like it was good for me at the beginning to not have one set idea so I could research into multiple things I found interesting and work out which would be the best for me to use. After researching artists, photographers, books and experimenting with ideas, I was able to narrow down things that weren’t working well for my NMP and areas which did. This helped me improve my NMP over time.
My initial proposal was quite vague even though I did have an idea that I was quite set on it wasn’t fully developed enough. I decided to look back at previous projects that I had enjoyed doing and one stood out to me which also had the theme of body image and the media. That helped me decide fully that the cosmetic surgery journey I proposed was going to be the route I was going to take. My project would involve following a friends journey whilst she was going to undergo a breast augmentation, but showing the side we don’t usually get to see, the non-glamourised side of it.
I was told that this idea of cosmetic surgery and seeing the other side to what we usually see would be a good project to use. I decided to document Sarah’s whole journey as I would be with her the whole time as it was, looking after her. My idea was to document everything from appointments, shopping, right after the surgery itself to scars and showing the struggle she would have after the surgery as it is a medical procedure and I think people forget this. I did some test shots of Sarah for advanced research strategies module to show how she was before the surgery. I planned to do all my images like I did with these test shots, mostly being in a set environment, full body shots so you could see everything but her face. After taking these images I decided this wasn’t the route to go down and went back to research more photographers who’s work I thought might influence my ideas as I was quite disappointed with the result I had. They just didn’t seem right and wasn’t how I had imagined them to look. On there own they looked alright but they weren’t flowing well as a series would have to.
After having feedback from Moria and her giving me a list of things I could look into for research I found inspiration from multiple sources. My main inspiration was a photographer named Lydia Goldblatt and her series called ‘Keeping Time’. Looking at her images from this series gave me the inspiration I needed and I knew what direction I wanted my project to go in. I really liked the way her images were making you want to see more and I loved how her subjects were positioned in her images. The framing of the image captured was exactly what I wanted my images to be like. I also liked how on nearly all the images you couldn’t see anyones face, this is something I had decided on right at the beginning of my project. I was never going to show Sarah’s face.
I then started to take my images as Sarah started her cosmetic journey. At first it was quite hard for us both to act like the camera wasn’t there. I was documenting her journey so didn’t want my images to be staged. After the first couple of weeks though we both got used to the camera being there and didn’t even notice it hardly anymore.
I started off from the beginning with her, taking images before the surgery, leading up to it. My main images were after her surgery showing the side where there is pain, the violent side to this kind of surgery. I wanted my images to have a feel where people weren’t sure what they were looking at, at first glance. I decided to take some of my images mainly the images of the scars in a very abstract way I feel like this gave them a very beautiful feel to them, where you wasn't quite sure what it was you were looking at but the curves and shapes were shown off perfectly.
After taking multiple images following her journey it then came to editing and I decided that my images worked best in black and white, my inspiration for this was from the photographer Edward Weston. He also took very abstract images all in black and white which made them stand out even more and you were able to see all the detail within the images. I felt like the black and white created the perfect contrast for my images.
At this point in my project I felt like everything was coming together how I wanted it to I had decided on a main focus for my project and started taking images that I really liked and thought worked well with what I wanted to achieve.
My final images show Sarah’s journey from beginning to end and show the changes that have been made to her body though out this time and the emotions that she has been through. Also the changes that have happened to her without her maybe realising or wanting them to. My series shows the struggle and violence behind these cosmetic procedures that we see in the media everyday as being easy and glamorous. I feel like my series will help people see what it is really like behind the closed doors after having such procedures, when we are trying to conform to society for ourselves or for others.
Usually I would have found it really difficult to write something like this but I feel like my time at university has helped me improve on my writing skills especially having to write blogs for every module and project.
No comments:
Post a Comment