Statement of Intent
Section 1. Practise
My original approach to my practise was to photograph gigs and bands with a digital format. Since starting this course however - I have taken an interest in exploring film. I have learnt the basic yet important skills of film photography by understanding the settings, film ISOs, developing film negatives and producing photographs. My practise has changed from live sets to more portraiture work; I want to be able to produce more portraits so I can develop my skills as a photographer with people and to control how I want to see things happen such as poses, settings, people, clothing etc.
Section 2. Personal Development
My main area of practise would have to be music in photography as I have a real passion for capturing a moment in action; despite this I want to keep working further into portraiture as I feel I have a lot to learn in this area of photography. Hopefully I will be continuing this throughout HE and learning more about the advertising and editorial side of photography. In my own personal development I want to be able to have the confidence in doing a photo shoot with people and know exactly how I want it to look, to be able to use equipment with ease and have a good judgement on compositions. This will be an extended approach to what I have been doing in my pathway stage which is to explore portraits.
Section 3. Proposal
I wish to explore portraits for one project but develop this idea and work further in depth and manipulate the images with varies materials such as paint, collage, scratching and burning into the negatives, creating textured surfaces and I also want to explore projecting images from acetate onto my subject. For my main project my influences have been of the likes of
Phillippe Halsman and
Hedi Slimane with their elegantly sophisticated approach to portraits. I am inspired by the way Slimane creates such a beautiful image with minimal yet powerful lighting onto his models. Slimane works with musicians not just an array of models, so this motivates me to continue with my musical side – maybe not live like I used to but an extract of bands behind the stage.
I want to produce a lot of portraiture images from this project with outside locations and studio backdrops - possibly using props and a mixture of male and female subjects. From the works of Brian Griffin, Phillippe Halsman and Hedi Slimane, their portraits inspires me to increase my knowledge on portraits with the way they set their lighting, the positions they think of, structuring the image and their specific techniques. Because I have only used digital in the past, and although I have used people in my past projects it has not been so intimate so to create a comfortable environment is a great challenge for me and will also help me gain the experience for future career tasks.
With both of these projects I want them both to reflect off each other: a set of portraiture images nothing done to them and a set of the same set of people but manipulated with different media like Rauschenberg with how he uses a varied materials in his work. I want to investigate how people perceive the manipulated version to the original set.
Section 4. Reflection
For my planning I will use a series of small books to keep a record of all my thoughts such as storyboards, inspiration, tests shoots. I have already started a small book on photographers, with photos and research on them also keeping a bibliography. I will also write down what equipment I am using and how it has worked for me, including what it hasn’t and what I can change. I want to have separate books on both projects but as a final piece I know I want to have them together. Negatives I will keep in a small folder separate to these books with notes and reminders of what was best about the shoot and what wasn’t. I am willing to use both 35mm film, digital and possibly medium format. With all these books they will have notes about the photos and what I have gained out of those shoots.
First photo was taken by me
The second and third by Slimane.
My original approach to my practise was to photograph gigs and bands with a digital format. Since starting this course however - I have taken an interest in exploring film. I have learnt the basic yet important skills of film photography by understanding the settings, film ISOs, developing film negatives and producing photographs. My practise has changed from live sets to more portraiture work; I want to be able to produce more portraits so I can develop my skills as a photographer with people and to control how I want to see things happen such as poses, settings, people, clothing etc.
I wish to explore portraits for one project but develop this idea and work further in depth and manipulate the images with varies materials such as paint, collage, scratching and burning into the negatives, creating textured surfaces and I also want to explore projecting images from acetate onto my subject. For my main project my influences have been of the likes of Phillippe Halsman and Hedi Slimane with their elegantly sophisticated approach to portraits. I am inspired by the way Slimane creates such a beautiful image with minimal yet powerful lighting onto his models. Slimane works with musicians not just an array of models, so this motivates me to continue with my musical side – maybe not live like I used to but an extract of bands behind the stage.
For my planning I will use a series of small books to keep a record of all my thoughts such as storyboards, inspiration, tests shoots. I have already started a small book on photographers, with photos and research on them also keeping a bibliography. I will also write down what equipment I am using and how it has worked for me, including what it hasn’t and what I can change. I want to have separate books on both projects but as a final piece I know I want to have them together. Negatives I will keep in a small folder separate to these books with notes and reminders of what was best about the shoot and what wasn’t. I am willing to use both 35mm film, digital and possibly medium format. With all these books they will have notes about the photos and what I have gained out of those shoots.
