Concept
The concept of this project is to take any social issue and making a piece representing the issue. The piece should be visibly obvious about what it is on. The piece should speaking to the audience without literally speaking. The topic I chose is about feminism, femininity is a social construct. We as a society have created this to show how woman should act and present themselves. So the pieces I create will be showing that femininity does not make you a woman.
Research
For this project I will be trying a different type of photography. I will be setting up and creating pictures without models. This will be new for me since I usually use models in a lot of my pictures. I will have to experiment with placement and have to strategically place the pieces. I will also being mirrors in some my picture to portray the idea of self image or how you present yourself to the outside world. Due to the fact that I have not used mirrors in my photography shoots often I will be using this video to help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SgoCMEZSVg
The video will help me find different ways to position my camera to get the best possible shots. I do not want to worry about seeing the flash in the mirror or the camera in the mirror so the video I linked will help with that and if the original position I chose does not work this video has more inspiration on how to incorporate a mirror.
Conceptual Photography
Some of the examples that were shown above is a photography style called conceptual photography. Conceptual photography Is the idea that images transmit abstract ideas. Majority of the time conceptual photography speaks through images by showcasing a powerful message. Each image is supposed to activate your creativity and have your mind try to understand the abstract concept.
Process
The Idea
The idea was to show that femininity does not make you a woman. Wearing makeup or wearing dresses does not make you anymore like a woman. You are allowed to wear suits, you are allowed to present yourself in what ever way you chose and still be a woman. The goal of this project is to show exactly that.
The Inspiration
Even though a lot of these don't have text it is quite obvious what the message is about. I will be using that in my shots. I think that even though a lot of these have models it will be good inspiration. All these shots vary in different ways but I will make my shots more cohesive.
Setting up
The set up was quick simple, I started off by taking a small mirror and placing it on a stand. I them took my lipstick and wrote on the mirror. I wrote "put on some makeup" but then used my hand to smudge the words. Once the words were too smudged to read I took a wipe and cleaned it then wrote "you would be prettier with some makeup. I then took my makeup and statistically placed them.
Editting
For editing I tried multiple types of coloring, some the gave and old artistic feel and some modern, I settled on the one that gave a darker more horror like feeling because I think it shows how this is a nightmare to people that wear makeup and the standards that we are put up against. The three piece collage was a decision to make it more interesting but also to represent a story. Seeing one picture alone the story is unclear but now seeing it together, the image is clear.
Shots
Results
There is a lot of meaning behind every shot in this collage. The reason I put the words on the mirror and not on top of the picture is because sometime it is not other people telling us that we need makeup but instead us telling ourselves. Yes people may have said it but it makes a bigger impact when you keep saying it to yourself because that is when u start to believe it. In all the pictures you can see the text is being smudged, this is supposed to represent a person finally being confident in themselves and wiping away the words that lie. The purpose of the makeup still being in the photo is to show that we will still wear makeup but we wear it for ourselves. We don't put it on because we don't feel confident but instead we put it on to enhance our confidence.
Reflection
I think my piece has a lot of meaning behind it and like how very aspect of it was done for a reason. I think I learned and experimented with a lot. I think that the meaning behind the shot goes without saying as well, which was one of my personal goals. The coloring and style of the picture is quite different from my other ones but I really like that about this picture. I think the uniqueness of it really stands out. The lipstick was very hard to get off the mirror but it was worth it because the final result came out just the way I wanted.