Media Project
The final pieces are a representation of the blurred line between fantasy and reality, using a combination of photography and illustration to show this in a small series of conceptual fashion photographs.
Research and Experimentation
The words that I was given at the start of this project on the word generator were 'crabmeat', 'gentle' and 'flesh', and after a few mind maps of these I chose to focus my project on the ocean. When the actual brief, which included using a collection, was given to us, I decided to stick with the ideas that I had come up with using the mind maps and collected a selection of objects from around my flat which stuck to the general theme of the ocean and beaches. This included some wind chimes, shells, jewellery and also a string of beads which I have been collecting for a few years, called nalu beads, which are glass beads that are all inspired by different beaches around the world.
The 3 mind maps above show roughly how I progressed forward with different ideas starting with the original 3 words in the first mind map.
As part of the original task, I used the 3 words to create this mood board using photo shop, which is a visual display of some of the imagery that I would like to consider when beginning this project.
During the digital workshop, I used premier, for the first time, to make this short clip which experiments with some basic video editing techniques. As I already knew that I want my project to take either a fashion photography or conceptual photography route, I chose not to take premier any further than this, although I did find it fun learning how to use it.
As I said before, I want my project to become conceptual or fashion photography piece as I feel that this is the thing within media that interests me most, and also relates the best to what I want to do in the future, so will be the most helpful when it comes to building my portfolio. I made a second mood board that relates better to where I want my project to go, and have included various forms of fashion photography that relates to water or the ocean in some way. One name in particular kept coming up and that was Tim Walker, who is a fashion photography who is famous for creating beautiful and intricate scenes which often have fantasy elements to them. Although I am a strong admirer of a lot of his work, I found these 6 photos to be particularly inspiring for this project, as they all have either a connection to water, mermaids or the connection between fantasy and reality. The photo photo in the centre of the second line stood out in particular to me as I found that it stuck in my mind because of the way that the shape of the models dress looks like wings in the reflection in the mirror, which eludes to ideas about how much is imagination and how much is reality, which is an idea that I would like to bring into my own project. This surreal element is one of the things that I love about Tim Walker's work.
The next photographer who I thought was relevant to my project was a conceptual fashion photographer who goes by Miss Anelia. She seamlessly blends real life photos with collection of illustrations, other photos and paintings to create these beautiful scenic images which depict a word where imagination and reality and not separate ideas. I think that there is something really beautiful about her work, and the fact that the ideas clearly aren't real and yet are photoshopped in a way that it could be is interesting paradox.
The photos below are the work of photographer Stephen Crisco, who's work I have included because of his distortion of reality through the lens of his camera, in an eery yet beautiful sort of way.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevosshots/
I took these photos to experiment with, using blue and green cellophane over the lens of the camera to create an interesting under water effect when the last reflects off the cellophane. I didn't set these photos up in any special way, I only took them to experiment with some of my ideas, although later in the project I would like to do a larger and more extensive shoot with more preparation and thought.
Developing the idea
I drew out some illustrations to photoshop over the top of some of the photos I took, using first acetate and then paper and scanning it in, which when I put it through first illustrator and then photoshop produced a neater line.
I made the illustrations white and then put it over the top of the photo, whilst also playing with the brightness and layering up the images. The concept that I am trying to get across here is the line between fantasy and reality; the illustrations are very naive and juvenile and by putting them over the model, it blends this idea of connecting whats real and what isn't. I'd like to develop this concept further and make the message clearer, which I think will come when I do a shoot with more planning and thought going into it. However, as an experiment, I am happy with the way that the image below turned out, and the way that the cellophane, photoshop and illustrations all work together.
Further Experimentation
Below is another experiment I did on the analogue workshop day, using a polaroid and collage using inks, cellophane and photos of shells. I felt that I created an interesting visual with the blue and the shells almost flowing out of the photo which I cut in half, which could elude to the idea of the colour and vibrancy representing the imagination behind the fairly uninteresting outer look of the photo.
I then took the collage I made and put it into photoshop, and played around with some different effects.
I produced the image below on photoshop by layering up and changing the opacity of the same image of the collage in a different size, and also a large version of some of the ink I used to create the blue tone.
Moving forward from the analogue day, I decided that the idea I wanted to carry forward was the visual representation of the line between fantasy and reality, using a blend of photography and illustration to represent this in the form of and image depicting a mermaid.
Developing the final idea
I painted the face of the model to fit in with the theme, and to further mix up and confuse fantasy and reality in the images. I took photos of her in a variety of 'normal' household places such as the kitchen sink and the bathroom, so that I would have the potential to blend the normality of these places with the imagery idea of a mermaid, so that even though the subject of the image maybe have these ideas that she's a mermaid, the viewer will be reminded through the setting in the photos that in reality she is just sat in her bathroom. I also used the cellophane again as I liked the effect it created before, although I did not go on to use these images. I went through contact sheets of the shoot and selected the best out of them to take forward.
Below are some of the initial photoshop ideas that I came up with, by layering and merging some photos of the ocean and the beach into the photos I took, to try and confuse the viewer and mix reality and fantasy, in a similar style to Miss Anelia, whose work I look at, at the start of the project. I think that the way that the the ocean scenery is layered up around the model is interesting because I have lead the viewer to almost believe that the model is in the sea but with the subtle yet obvious reminder that she is only in her bathroom, with the sink appearing out of the sea, along with the rest of the bathroom in the top part of the image. This is so that the viewer is taken along with the subject's imagination but only up to a certain point, as the viewer is able to see the difference, where the model supposedly cannot.
Although I was very happy with how these photoshop images worked out, I felt that I wanted to add something else over the top, so that I could really make the difference between imagination and reality more obvious to the viewer, despite the subject still being confused, and I thought that drawing over the top would be the perfect way to highlight this, in a way that photoshop can't. I wanted the difference to be more obvious than just blending photos, as I thought that this would make more of an impact on the viewer. Below is the first experiment that I did with this and I didn't think that it was right, so I continued but in a way more similar to my earlier experiments over the top of the photoshop images I produced.
I thought that Ben Heine's work was appropriate to use here, specifically his collection of 'Imagination vs Reality, Drawing vs Photography' photos, which are made up of photos of real things and places, with drawings held up over them, creating a new imaginary image. I think this is interesting and I like the way that he differentiates between imagination and reality by using 2 completely different mediums; drawing and photography, but I would like to blend the 2, so that it is not quite so obvious to the viewer and there is still that element of confusion to make them look at the image for that extra second.
To get this blend, I used a graphics tablet to add illustrations on top of the blended photoshop images, which I thought was a good way to blend fantasy and reality, yet still make the line obvious to the viewer. I experiment with different amounts of work over the top of the images, and also added colour, as well as just the white lines. I also experimented with different amounts of lines, and features to see what worked the best.
After experimenting with different amounts of line and with colour, I decided that I wanted to stick with only white lines and no colour, because I did not want this to become an animation and draw the attention away from the original image and concept. The 3 images below are the final images that I would present.
The concept of these pieces is to represent this idea of the blurred line between imagination and reality, using photography and digital editing to blend real life images of both the real and the fake together, with added illustration over the top to highlight that fact that it is purely imagination. The reason why I have chosen to use illustration instead of only photography is to separate the 2 perspectives; us as the viewer can see the illustration so we know that it is fake, but the subject who has been drawn over supposedly cannot, and really could believe that she is in this fantasy world. The extent to which the subject believes this, is a question that should hold the viewer's interest in the images.
The context in which these images would be shown, would be a conceptual fashion magazine, and would not be there to show the fashion itself but to pose the question about the conflict between imagination and reality to the reader.
Evaluation and Reflection
After presenting my project, I was really happy with some of the feedback that I received, and it also helped me clear up some ideas about what context my final images would be used in. The group thought that they would be conceptual photography pieces in some sort of gallery, with a possible lean towards fashion photography, however if I was to explore this idea further than the fashion itself would need to be more significant which is definitely a very valid point.
One of the problems that I encountered during the media project was that I struggled to fit it to a specific context as it was a combination of a fashion project and a conceptual photography project. I managed to get around this problem by listening to the feedback given to me by my classmates at the end of the project.
I based this whole presentation on my blog, which I found very useful especially as this was something which I've never really tried before and I thought that was really effective way of getting across all my ideas. I like that you could read my process in a linear fashion and I could add notes and bits and pieces into it and edit it as I went along. It also meant I didn't have to print everything out and arrange it a sketchbook which was useful because obviously a lot of it was on a computer, being the media project.
I would say that I followed the basic creative process more or less quite accurately with the main exception being that I did my research and experimentation at the same time rather than doing the research first and then experimenting with materials. I don't think this was a problem as it helped me to produce ideas about the material and the research simultaneously. I found a big part of this process was the experimentation which I really enjoyed as a lot of it was stuff which I hadn't done before.
If I were to do this project again I think that I would to go into it with the mindset that I didn't have to try and follow any rules or conform to the brief and that I could experiment in anyway that I wanted and this is something I want to take forward with me into the next project especially given that it is the art project which is the most open out of all of them.
This project has definitely opened my eyes about what media is and I've also realised I really enjoy doing it, and that it is something which I can bring into my future because a costume designer mediates what the audience sees and you are seeing the whole production through the designers eyes and how they want you to see it.
Overall, I have really enjoyed the media project, more than I expected, although I wasn't really sure what to expect given that I hadn't done much with media before. I loved how open ended the brief was, and I also really enjoyed working with photoshop and learning how to use a graphics tablet. I would definitely consider working this way in the future, after my experience in the last 2 weeks as I have enjoyed it a lot.
