Presentation

Self Evaluation Report

Self Evaluation Report – Laura Parkinson

International Markets and Contexts

For this module, I had to work in a team to create a photographic festival that could take place anywhere in the world. We decided to collaborate our interests of portraiture and create the festival “Realms of the Unknown”, which took our love of photographing people surreal things together.

I used Maurice Heesen as my research, as I wanted to photograph something I had never photographed before. Heesen took blood and gore to create a series of images that looked on the lighter side of death; how we should die smiling. His images inspired me to take the theme of blood and death, and create some editorial inspired images that had a twist. Looking back over my research, I did a lot of extensive research into other photographers who had looked at blood and gore, although I wish I had looked at more fashion magazines such as Vogue to find examples within print.

I then took to the studio to create some high fashion portraits with fake cuts filled with blood. I think my images look really professional, and the editing that I did made them not look as fake. I have learn a lot technically from this shoot, as I had never shot on a white background before, so had to change the lighting to stop shadows forming behind the model and making the background pure white. Some of the background on my images did turn grey because of lack of light from the left hand side, however, I have learnt from my mistakes and next time will know I need three lights rather than two.

Our presentation went well and a lot of effort was put into the logo and layout of it. We spoke about how we planned to lay out our exhibition within Grizedale forest, as well as how we were influenced for our work and our own work, which we had produced. It was also inspiring to see other people’s plans and how they had conducted the module. It made us realise, to some extent, that we had not done enough in terms of contacting people about pricing and seeing the location. If I were to do this module again, I would plan a field trip with my group to Grizedale forest, where we could have made a precise plan of where our images would hang from and how we could incorporate our work with the sculptures that are already there. Overall, I think we were really creative with planning our exhibition in comparison to other groups. We planned to have actors and dancers to make the overall feel of the festival more exciting, and also thought about the smaller details when creating the invoice estimate, such as candles and wire to hang the images.

Presentation of Work Within Gallery Space

I decided to have an experiment and see what my work would look like within a gallery interior.

 I decided I wanted my images to be displayed within a cabin in the woods scenario, where people could fully immerse themselves in the experience of viewing the photographs together with a location that was creepy and unnatural. I planned for there to be 2 walls inside the cabin with work being exhibited by Maurice Heesen and me. Then, I would like to be a big ornate fire at the back of the room, that is lit by wood, like a traditional fire, which would be one of the sources of light. The other sources of light would come from small spotlights on the roof of the cabin, that were pointing directly at the images.

I did a mock up of the interior of the cabin. Obviously, all six images would be displayed on the walls.

Here are my images displayed in a traditional gallery setting. I thought I would experiment and see what they would look like in a "normal" festival location.

Studio Session #2

I decided to experiment in the studio with different coloured backgrounds and how this can affect the overall look and feel of an image. I decided to use the blood again, but with an anti-Christ/rebel theme in mind. The pink background represented the lighter side of this models personality, underneath all the make up and jewellery. It was a learning curve for me as I had never shot with paper backgrounds before, never mind a pink background! I used the University of Bolton's photography studio for this, so it was a different experience working in a different studio and having to use my initiative and current knowledge to work the equipment.

Experiments

Over the course of this weekend, I conducted some experiments with the images I had shot in the studio with my friend Kelly a few weeks ago, as well as taking some new images of my hand.

I took the skills that I had learnt from making fake cuts and bruises and made a large cut on my hand and used the fake blood again. I then transferred it into black and white. I wanted an elegant hand pose, like they have in the magazines. I was inspired by the image below, after reading an article on modelling of certain body parts in magazines. On reflection, I would have preferred to have shot this in the studio, and used long fake nails, and rings and bracelets to exaggerate the purpose of it being an editorial shot. I would also have used a model, as I had no idea how to position my hands!

I took one of my final images from the studio, and layered it with another final image. I took the eyes from the second image and layered them over the top of the arm. I thought this gave it a surreal feel, which fits in with our international festival topic. However, I won't be submitting this for the final 6 images, as it doesn't fit in with my practitioner.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2065971/Eyes-lips-feet-hands-Can-guess-finest-features-model.html

Studio Session

These are my final six images for submission!

I think my images worked well overall to fit the brief. I planned originally to shoot these and edit them in colour, however, the fake blood I bought came out of the container a different colour than I predicted (the container showed it to be a dark red colour and it actually came out bright red!), so I edited them in high contrast black and white to make them appear more realistic. I think these have worked well, I wanted to capture an editorial style set that had a spin of gore and blood. I think I achieve this pretty well!

Funding Bodies

We decided to look at funding bodies that could support our festival with subsidies and advertisement. We decided to look at three bodies that could help; the Arts Council, Lake District council and National Trust.

Asking for funding off a local council would be good, as they would be more willing to sponsor us and give us a bursary or financial help if we could secure that they would receive a greater number of footfall within the area, therefore, benefitting the local economy. People travelling from abroad would not just attend for one night and then fly home, there is more chance of them staying for a week and making a holiday out of it.

Arts Council England invest into artistic and creative ideas within England, helping them mature and develop into projects that benefit the country. The National Lottery are linked with the Arts Council, and on average 14p from every person in England contributes per week.

I thought about the National Trust because Grizedale forest is ran by the National Trust, because the festival will be taking place within their grounds, they may be willing to give us the location for a subsidised price, or even free if it benefitted their footfall.

Groups Practioners/Own Work

Kelly has decided to use Nick Knight as her practitioner. Nick Knight is a well-known fashion photographer who has famously photographed Lady Gaga for her album cover last year. Kelly has decided to shoot some dark, black and white high contrast surreal portraits to echo Knights work, within a studio location with a model with heavy creative make up on.

Jade has decided to use Courtney Brooke as her inspiration for her set. Brooke, also known as Light Witch, specialised in dark and mysterious photography, creating scenarios with her models, or creating an atmosphere with smoke or powder. Jade has decided to create a series of images looking at the plague, with the objects that were considered being able to cure the plague being photographed in the models hands. The model would be wearing a traditional doctors mask that was around in the times of the plague.

Bee has chosen the work of Kyle Thompson, who has been chosen as our main practitioner, specialised in self portraiture and surreal photography. Bee has decided to take a series of images that look into movement and using editing techniques to give them a surreal atmosphere!

Exhibition Planning and Finance Lecture with Karin

Today we had a really interesting and thought provoking lecture with Karin about exhibition planning and finance and how she managed it for her own personal exhibition. It was especially interesting for me because before I started University I was interested in become a curator in a gallery, so the things she spoke about were relevant for my understanding of the subject and defined how passionate I was about it still.

Firstly, Karin spoke about her exhibition she produced of her own work at Manchester Photographic Gallery. Before this exhibition was brought together in 2011, she had a number of commissions and exhibitions within Manchester and surrounding areas. She had an exhibitions shortly after she graduated focussing on Manchester musicians and their portraits in 1998. She then had an exhibition at the People's History Museum on the homeless people of the area in 1999, followed by an exhibition looking at the history of mental health in 2002. It was interesting to look at her previous work and how she has developed to become the photographer she is now.

Her exhibition that was held at Manchester Photographic Gallery was titled "AAA Shaun Ryder and Friends" and looked at the portraits she had taken of Shaun Ryder throughout his career. They had a professional and photographic relationship after they met at a festival in the mid 1990s. There were three floors that Karin spoke about at the lecture, Black Grape, Ten Mancs and On Tour with Shaun. Each different floor featured other musical artists that Shaun had worked with and met.

Karin spoke about finance, and how she financed the exhibition out of her own pocket. She was offered the full cost of the exhibition to be covered by the gallery, but they got to chose the frames and mounting techniques that were going to be used. To get full control of the exhibition and how it looked, she decided to finance it herself by taking out a loan, and used a variety of sprayed metal frames, glass mounted images and traditionally mounted frames. In total, she spent £4,500 on the exhibition, including all the prints, frames and access all areas passes for the opening night. The gallery priced the images at 50% commission, and Kopparberg sponsored the event. This made me think about the logistics of exhibition organisation and how much effort and planning would be needed to organise an international festival like we are.

We then decided, in my group, to construct a map of how the international festival would look, and how much it would cost. We, naturally, had to do an estimate of how much it would cost for the opening night of the festival, excluding the hire of Grizedale Forest as there were no quotations to hire a large outdoor area. We can imagine the estimate would be much more because of this.

PRINTS - £3700

18X METAL FRAMES - £2700

11X GOLD FINISH - £900

9X ACRYLICS - £1350

FLYERS - £200

500X LAUNCH NIGHT PASSES - £500

INVITATIONS - £50

SPOTLIGHT HIRE - £250

GENERATOR HIRE - £500

CRANE HIRE FOR HANGING OF IMAGES - £100

INDUSTRIAL WIRE TO HANG IMAGES - £250

PROJECTOR - £100

ACTORS FOR CABIN - £100

DANCERS - £100

LANTERNS - £40

CANDLES - £100

These were based on the sheet Karin gave us with the pricing of the frames and prints she bought for her shoot, as well as personal knowledge of how much it costs to finance an exhibition. I have only had one exhibition and that was at Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington in 2011. It was an awful experience for me as it so badly organised on their part, however, I managed to pull through the stress and exhibit my 7 images. I had been put off until I got offered an exhibition this November in my local town! This lecture was especially helpful in gaining more knowledge about how much time and effort goes into planning something like this, and how I need to be prepared!

Editorial Photography Research

Before my studio shoot with my friend Kelly, I decided to do some initial research into editorial photography by some of the leading magazines, and how they use photography to sell a product or promote a brand! I looked into both traditional photography methods, and a few experimental methods of capturing fashion portraits.

I thought this was an experimental way of showcasing a model through an editorial in a foreign version of Elle magazine. The model has been photographed in a studio using a white backdrop and three lights, two facing the model and one facing the background. However, in post production or so it seems, there has been a watercolour effect placed upon the models face. It appears to be a tattoo of some sort, placed on the models skin. It gives the overall photograph an artistic feel, as well as a Chinese tradition. My photographs are going to challenge the norm of editorial photography, and explore the realms of the unknown side of fashion photography which is not usually expressed within magazines. To help with my submission, I am going to submit my images to a number of different magazines, to gain feedback as to how they are viewed within a fashion industry environment.

This photograph has also been taken from Elle magazine and doesn't challenge the basics of fashion photography within the magazine. The model has been photographed from the knees up, with her hips leaning slightly to the left of the photograph. There has again been three lights used, and also a wind machine from the left of the shot to blow her hair back in a fashionable manner. I see this a lot in Vogue and Elle magazine, where they want to make the model appear more sexy and attractive. I plan to use the white background like a lot of editorial and fashion photography, but make the model stand out.

This editorial piece has been captured and featured in Vogue magazine. I have always followed Vogue and their work since I began University and even in that short space of time, I have examined their work and seen a change in it. Some of their editorial work is high end fashion, looking at pre-today and the fashions that have been. Others use the general "white background" approach when trying to see a product. The above shot is an example of where they take a fashion style from pre-today and base a photo shoot concept around it. This looks like it has been taken from the 19th century, judging by the dress and cuffs on the sleeves. There appears to be a stronger light emerging from the right of the image, casting a show on the left hand side of the models face. Again, a wind machine has been used to give the model an element of sexiness.

Above is how I pictured editorial photography to be captured. A typical white background with the model and what she is wearing being in focus. I plan to capture it this way as I want the blood and cuts to be the focus of the image, although I can image it would be even if I used a patterned background or a location. I want the blood to take all the drama of the photograph, and make the viewer look and think "Wow, why is she modelling looking like that?". I want to challenge the typical view of editorial and fashion photography and show people that it can be interesting, and can be captured in a scary and different way.

Kyle Thompson

For our main practitioner, who is going to represent the overall festival, we have chosen the work of Kyle Thompson, who is a self portrait photographer who is still relatively unknown in the photographic world, but is becoming more recognised for his self portrait fine art work.

My photographer was Maurice Heesen and we all agreed that his work contained subject matter that some members of the public may find offensive and graphic in nature.

I love Kyle Thompson's work because of the raw nature of his images, they show his struggle as a person and as a photographer, as well as document his thoughts and journey to becoming a photographer. I have followed Kyle Thompson's work for a number of years, so have witnessed the journey from his becoming an amateur photographer to a professional and recognised one. It would be nice to have someone so young who could connect with the students at the workshops on a personal level. 

Research: Paul Godfrey

I have chosen this image by this photographer, because of the setting and lighting that he has chosen. I love the dark lighting that seems to be directed from above the model and from the right. It makes her eyes appear mysterious and gives the image an overall dark feel. I will experiment with lighting in my images, and hopefully gain the intimate feel that these photographs possess.

Research: Erwin Olaf

Erwin Olaf is a photographer who has developed the series "Royal Blood", which looks at historical figures and represents them using blood and gore.

This photograph is based on Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Australia and Queen of Hungary. The photograph, showing a knife through the heart represents the way she died after she was stabbed by a young anarchist at the age of 60.

This image is based on Alexandra Feodorovna who carried the disease "Haemophilia" which is a gene related disorder. She was executed in 1918 and was shot several different times. These photographs are edited a lot in PhotoShop, and I would like to keep editing to a minimum.

This photograph represents Julius Caesar who was one of the most famous political leaders, and the knife in the back represents the backstabbing and betrayal that ultimately lead to his death. I find these photographs inspiring and had made me think about the colour of background I want to have when capturing my photographs. Originally I wanted a black background to make the images dark and mysterious, but now I am drawn to having a white background and a well lit surrounding to show off the blood and make the photograph more visible.

http://www.erwinolaf.com/360/
http://www.wicked-halo.com/2009/07/royal-blood.html