My Idea Rethought
I have rethought my idea, because it has been developing over the course of my research and after being given feedback, I have rethought what the project is actually about.
Initially, the main focus in my idea was about how you know nothing about a person from a picture, while using titles as a way to further emphasise this by making the viewer guess the connection between the titles and the image. The titles were going to be what they wanted to be when they were younger, however an audience wouldn't be aware of this. After being given feedback, I was told this was too gimmicky so I am scrapping that idea.
So far, everybody I have shot are people I know, however, I don't know all of them very well. Some, I have grown up with all my life such as my brother and my mum. My relationship with each person has different depths; some I've only met about five times. Yet, you can't tell that in the photos because they show only the appearance; the top layer.
In an interview, Thomas Ruff said;
In a way I wanted to blot out any traces or information about the person in front of the camera. I also wanted to indicate that the viewer is not face-to-face with a real person, but with a photograph of a person. Quite often people at the exhibitions say, “Oh, that’s Heinz, that’s Peter, that’s Petra,” because they’re looking through the photograph, confusing the medium with reality. By blowing the portraits up to a colossal scale, I forced the viewer to realize that he is not standing in front of Heinz, but in front of a photograph of Heinz.
I believe this is very accurate to how I want to see my own work to be seen, which is reinforced by the fact that I know each and every one of these individuals at a different level but that's not possible to tell by just an image, because it's not the actual person, it's just a drawing with light.
I feel that this project being about those I know personally will also say a lot about me. For example, i'm not particularly exposed to a large black community which will definitely show in my images because it's likely there will be no or little black people in my photographs. I am far more exposed to white British people will will be very evident. This can also say something about the area I live in. This is also accurate for the age ranges that will be shown in the images, by guessing the age of those in my images it may show my own age because of who I know.
In this series I'll show family, family friends, friends' friends and so on, which means i'll know everybody at a different personal level and the audience will not know who I know better.
Before we know somebody, we see them simply as by what they look like. I personally am very aware of this because i'm known as 'the girl with the hair' because my hair stands out more than the rest of me. We're seen as our outer masks only, because others don't know what's on the inside. However, as you get to know these people you see them as more than appearances but memories and personalities and feelings, and by having them shot the same, with the same expressions, this removes all traces of this.
The lighting is still going to be the same, inspired by Luvera and Parr, to give that expository, raw and honest feeling to the images. They'll continue to be shot at the same distances, for continuity. This is also inspired by Deiss, who said
I want to show how their honesty and self-awareness makes the invisible visible.
which I also believe is very relevant to my work because the lighting gives that honest feeling which makes an audience stop and look at these ordinary people that usually they wouldn't give a second look.
Initially, the main focus in my idea was about how you know nothing about a person from a picture, while using titles as a way to further emphasise this by making the viewer guess the connection between the titles and the image. The titles were going to be what they wanted to be when they were younger, however an audience wouldn't be aware of this. After being given feedback, I was told this was too gimmicky so I am scrapping that idea.
So far, everybody I have shot are people I know, however, I don't know all of them very well. Some, I have grown up with all my life such as my brother and my mum. My relationship with each person has different depths; some I've only met about five times. Yet, you can't tell that in the photos because they show only the appearance; the top layer.
In an interview, Thomas Ruff said;
In a way I wanted to blot out any traces or information about the person in front of the camera. I also wanted to indicate that the viewer is not face-to-face with a real person, but with a photograph of a person. Quite often people at the exhibitions say, “Oh, that’s Heinz, that’s Peter, that’s Petra,” because they’re looking through the photograph, confusing the medium with reality. By blowing the portraits up to a colossal scale, I forced the viewer to realize that he is not standing in front of Heinz, but in front of a photograph of Heinz.
I believe this is very accurate to how I want to see my own work to be seen, which is reinforced by the fact that I know each and every one of these individuals at a different level but that's not possible to tell by just an image, because it's not the actual person, it's just a drawing with light.
I feel that this project being about those I know personally will also say a lot about me. For example, i'm not particularly exposed to a large black community which will definitely show in my images because it's likely there will be no or little black people in my photographs. I am far more exposed to white British people will will be very evident. This can also say something about the area I live in. This is also accurate for the age ranges that will be shown in the images, by guessing the age of those in my images it may show my own age because of who I know.
In this series I'll show family, family friends, friends' friends and so on, which means i'll know everybody at a different personal level and the audience will not know who I know better.
Before we know somebody, we see them simply as by what they look like. I personally am very aware of this because i'm known as 'the girl with the hair' because my hair stands out more than the rest of me. We're seen as our outer masks only, because others don't know what's on the inside. However, as you get to know these people you see them as more than appearances but memories and personalities and feelings, and by having them shot the same, with the same expressions, this removes all traces of this.
The lighting is still going to be the same, inspired by Luvera and Parr, to give that expository, raw and honest feeling to the images. They'll continue to be shot at the same distances, for continuity. This is also inspired by Deiss, who said
I want to show how their honesty and self-awareness makes the invisible visible.
which I also believe is very relevant to my work because the lighting gives that honest feeling which makes an audience stop and look at these ordinary people that usually they wouldn't give a second look.
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