Exam

Starting points:• I want to focus mainly on portraits. I believe the artists on my

Pinterest are a good representation of how I want to structure my project.

• I want to photograph some buildings, these could include modern buildings as well as some historic ones. This could be for my second idea.

• I want to use Photoshop techniques, such as the layer mask tool. • As well as looking at buildings I want to capture certain aspects of

nature, including trees etc.• I want to do something similar to my artist, this would involve

obscuring the face of a model, by covering it with something e.g. a mask.

Robert MapplethorpeRobert Mapplethorpe is an artistthat specialises in taking photosof the models face. I have chosen study him as throughout my project I want to take photos ofa models face which will includeclose ups. His work is very successfulas I believe his use of composition, brightness and contrast all workvery well together. I think also howhe dresses his models is veryimportant in his work. As you can see in this piece the model is dressedin black. I think this is good as the attention of the audience is drawn tothe models face, this is also becausethe image has been made black andwhite.

Le Thanh Tung

Another artist that I have decided to study for my project is Le Thanh Tung.A rather unrecognised artist in thephotogrpahy world, Le Thanh Tung is much more of a graphic designer. I havechosen to look at this artist as I would like to bring an aspect of graphics into my work. The work is very succesful because there are various things whichmake it very visually striking. The use of colour here is very interesting. There are only really three basic colours, thesebeing, black, green and white. These colours all stand out against each otherwhich make it an overall more intriguing piece.

My Photographs for idea 1:(Portraits)

Photo 1:

Here is my first photograph. I wanted to capture the feeling of obscurity by masking my own face, in this case with a scarf. I am relatively pleased with this photo as it has has come out very well. The thing that I believe is most appealing about this photo is that the lighting is good. I made this specific way of lighting by turning the lights off, then using the flash on the camera.

Photo 2:

This is my second photo. What I have done is again focus on a models face and slightlyobscured it in some way, in this instance what I have done is put a hood on the model, this makes them harder to identify, therefore obscuring them.

Photo 3:

Similarly to the first one I have obscured the face by placing a hood over their head. I havealso used flash which is something that I also did in the first photo. I think this photo andthe previous have been a success as it resembles the theme of obscurity.

Photo 4:

I decided to increase the obscurity of this photo by adding the scarf around the face.I believe that this increases the sense of mystery surrounding the photo. I am pleasedwith this because I believe it outlines the theme well.

Photo 5:

This is the fifth photo I have taken. As you can see through my photo’s I have graduallyrevealed less and less of the models face. I have purposely done this so the identity ofthe model is harder to notice. As well as this it emphasis the idea of covert and obscure.

Photo 6:

Here is my sixth photo. I wanted to base my photographs on my artist Salvador Dali by using animals in my pictures, however this did not seem possible, so I thought I would experiment and use inanimate objects. In my opinion this is a good idea becauseit is still similar to that of Salvador Dali’s work as well as some of my other artists. As well as this it also obscures the face so it links into covert and obscured as a theme.

Photo 7:

This is my seventh photo. What I have done with this photo is place the object in question over the face of the model again, however this time I have exposed the eyes. I believe that this adds a sense of mystery to the piece. I have brought up the brightness Photoshop as I believe the original image was too dark.

Photo 8:

This is my eighth photo. At this point I wanted to start broadening my range ofobjects used. Although it may be hard to tell I was basing this photo on ReneMagritte’s ‘The Son of Man’. After taking this photo I now realize that it may beeasier to take a separate photo of the model and another photo of the object. Thisway I can cut out the object in Photoshop and place it in front of the models face.I also used Photoshop here to brighten up the image.

Photo 9:

Here is my ninth photo. I have taken a photo close up on the models lips and the fingerplaced over the lips. I feel that this relates to covert and obscured as half of the model’s face is out of view and it feels as f something is being kept from the audience.

Photo 10:

Out of all the photos that I have taken this one is my favourite. This is because I believe that this picture has the sense of being edited but it hasn’t been. I also think the objectlooks in place and that the model is holding his head on is shoulders in a way.