Robert Hammersteil Photography

I came across these images in “The Photo Book,” where it explaines Robert Hammerstiel’s inspiration behind his photographs:

“Doll’s outfits packaged in transparent plastic are part of everyday commercial reality. They introduce children to adult’s patterns of consumption. Hammerstiel’s tactic is to photograph and reproduce such miniatures on a scale to large enough to make them objects for thought. His strategy in general is to show how what we think of as reality is produced and to demonstrate that there is little which is natural about it – hence his interest in the presentation of goods, as well as in the goods themselves. In the Made it up series, to which this photograph belongs, he includes portraits of dolls variously made up, as well as studies of packaged outfits.” (Phaidon, 1997, p.194)

These photographs interested me in the way in which the minature images of clothes are perfectly laid out.  It made me think of how chlidren grow up looking at images of ‘perfect’ women at such a young age and can be influenced but what they see in magazines and television. The photograph of the doll emphasises how the media portray women as idealised, like Barbie who is described as the ‘perfect’ women which I discussed in my blog last term. The way in which these clothes and doll are not ‘real,’ made me think of how the media portrays images of women who are unrealistic to others (unachievable beauty), but push women to believe we may need to change and alter our appearance to become more ‘beautiful.’

Final Piece Thoughts

For my final pieces of work I want to show a sense of claustrophobia and containment by how the media portrays women in a controlling way, with the images almost suffocating them. I have learnt through my previous photographic shoots what looks good and what does not. For example I need to be more precise, make sure there are no sleeves, or bracelets, plain clothes and background, etcetera.  Therefore the audience can focus on the women and the images. I want to create narratives within the images, to point out the pressures women feel in their lives due to the images of beauty and other women’s appearances that is shown to them through the media.

Final Piece 3 - Idea's

Final Piece 2 - Idea's

Final Pieces 1 - Idea's

Experimenting with Images

For these images I used some stills from previous photographic shoots to experiment with the images floating onto the women’s faces. This was a very long process, as I added the images in Photoshop, moved them all a tiny bit, saved the image, then started again, and carried that process on. This was so that when the images are played they looked like they were floating onto the girls face. I wanted the images to look like they were floating out from the laptop (top image) onto the girls face.

I prefer the earlier photographic shoots where the images are stuck onto the girls face instead of inserting them in Photoshop, because the images (going on the face) look too flat. It is also obvious that they are added on in Photoshop. I am now going to go back to my original idea of sticking the images on the girls face and start composing my final pieces. I will now be focusing on creating narratives within my images to create a story.

Photographic Shoot 6

For this photographic shoot I used myself and my twin, where I placed the images on her face. The aim of the photographic shoot was to show how a woman may feel the need to conform to the media’s representation of women and the standards of beauty. “In the contemporary society, identity is strongly mediated by images provided by the mass culture, offering ideals for modelling one's personal identity” (Damean, 2006, p.89). Thefore someone may lose their identity because they may feel the need to change their appearance, which I wanted to portray in my photographs. I used myself and my sister to make it look like a mirrored image, and that the girl was putting the images on herself. The two things that would have made this photographic shoot better would have been to put my hair behind my back (so it looks like a mirror image); and for my sister to have stood up taller so we looked the same height. I will try and make sure this is achieved if I decided to use a similar image for my final piece.

Rosie Hardy Photography

Rosie Hardy’s photography has had a strong impact on me because I feel that it relates to my work, with the feeling or suffocation, restriction, change, etcetera. For example this is shown in the photograph where the woman is wrapped in cling film trying to break out and the woman behind the sheet. One’s identity is obscured, like my photographs where the women’s faces are covered up, losing their identity. I really like the photograph of the woman on strings like a puppet, being pulled around. For me I linked this to my project, in the way in which women may be altered or changed by the media, because of its representation of portraying beautiful women; leaving some women feeling the need to conform to these standards of beauty.

 

Photographic Shoot 5

For this photographic shoot it was just an experiment to test out my idea before the real photographic shoot. Instead of the arms removing the images I am experimenting with the images appearing on the women’s face. I was not sure how it was going to look, so I just tried out my idea on the floor. For this I put all the images on the floor and then removed them one by one, taking the photograph before I removed it. I did this for every image to get the final video.


 

 

I decided that I liked the idea so I tried it out on the girls face by completing the exact same process as I did with the floor. I really like the final result because it looks as though she is being engulfed but the images of beautiful women.  Throughout my photographic shoots I also want to emphasise that I am trying to portray that these women may lose their identity because of the media’s influence on them and the pressure these women may feel; therefore feeling the need to change their appearance.  The images appearing and covering their whole face is to show the women losing their identity because of what they see and read, but at the same time not necessarily knowing that they are being influenced, for example by reading magazines. The way that the images are either controlled by the arms or just appear on their face is to represent that the women may not necessarily have a choice or opinion in the way women are perceived and represented by the medial; and that these images of ‘beautiful’ women and what beautiful women look like are forced upon them.

 

In previous photographic shoots the girls have been either sitting or standing up, but because I needed the girl to lie completely still, I laid her down on the floor and placed the camera on a tripod so that it was in the exact same position every time. Otherwise if the camera or model moved a lot it would have made the image stutter, because I had to take the image off, take the photograph and repeat this until all the images were removed.

Final Piece and Exhibition

For my final piece and exhibition I would like to make my final images into flipbooks and also have them on a white monitor. I have been trying to look up companies that can make the flipbooks for me so that it looks perfect except at the moment I cannot find any, but I am going to keep searching.

I thought that I would look up the history of the flipbook and where it originated from. The flip book is a form of animation of still images that is flicked so fast that it creates a moving image. The flip book was patented by John Barnes Linnett in 1868, and Max Skladanowsky who showed his photographic images in a flip book in 1894. Below is one of Max Skladanowsky’s first animation film with a man boxing with a kangaroo made in 1895.

David Ayer Photography

I like Davis Ayer photography because he projects vintage images onto women’s bodies of landscapes. Davis makes the body form match and link up with the women’s body making the images stand out and look very artistic and carefully planned.  These images made me think of my project, in the way in which I use images and place them on women.  I realised that to produce a successful image that I should make sure that the images I use fit the body well, for example precisely covering the bare skin so that no skin can be seen.

Advertsing Beauty

I have also looked at advertisement of products and how they can make the audience believe that if one purchase’s these products it can help change their body features or make them look more 'beautiful'. For example, I came across this advert by singer Diana Vickers for her clothing line by ‘Very’. It stood out to me because she says that the jumpsuit that she is wearing can also make you look “taller and slimmer.” It can be said that the consumer will feel that buying this product will make them look more beautiful or make them feel better about their body. It is also modelled by Diana Vickers who is a very pretty, young, skinny girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQnQ080cFKY



Dove - Evolution Commercial

I also found the ‘Dove Campaign: For Real Beauty’ clip called “Evolution Commercial” which shows a pretty but ordinary girl being transformed into a stunning billboard model. It is a time lapse sequence showing her having her make-up and hair being done by experts. The sequence then moves to Photoshop where the girl’s features are being altered more, even though she looks beautiful. For example her neck is made longer, her shoulder curves are altered, her hair and skin are changed, and her mouth and eyes are made larger. The final shot goes to the woman on the billboard looking stunning but unrecognisable from before, saying after, “No wonder perception of beauty it distorted.” It made me think that in magazines, television programmes, etcetera, the media ends up altering women’s real identity by changing their appearance to make them look more ‘beautiful’ because of what is seen as stereotypically ‘beautiful.’ Which can thefore put pressure on women to aspire to look like these women in order to find happiness and beauty.

Photographic Shoot 4

 
http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2007/06/girls_aloud_bea


“The smiling, happy faces, the slim, shiny bodies, poreless, glossy, smooth and clean, perfect and proper, beam at us every day. They come at us from magazine covers, billboards, television advertising, shop windows, music videos. We see them and hear the messages they send: ‘You too can look like this’; ‘You deserve to be this’; ‘This is how to look to be happy’”(Wright).

After reading this article it inspired the photographic shoot below, because it discusses how adverts of women seen in magazines sell products promising to make you look more beautiful if you buy them.  It also discusses how the beauty industry and images of women can make some women feel insecure and inadequate and “What they are really saying to us is that we are 'supposed' to be like the women in the adverts” (Wright). Michelle Wright also discusses the myth that women’s beauty is the most important thing for a woman. She explains that the adverts make women recognise flaws that we would have not noticed before, and one may feel that by buying the product it will solve their problem.

Once again I used the scene shoot from photographic shoot one for inspiration. I like the final video because it looks like the images are coming out of the magazine, but if I could change anything I would have made the image simpler. For example the girl would wear plain clothes, have plain bed sheets and the arms would not have any bracelets on or sleeves. I am learning through my photographic shoots how to make the final photographic shoot the best it can be by leaning through my mistakes.  In my photographic shoot I wanted to express that some women may be influenced subconsciously by the images they see of women through the media and not even notice this because they see them so frequently.  For example by watching television, using their computer or reading magazines.  I also want to show that women do feel suffocated by how women are represented leaving them feeling the need to change themselves or buy beauty products to achieve beauty.

Photographic Shoot 3

In this photographic shoot I was trying to incorporate the still images for the first photographic shoot (see below) and the idea of the images being placed on the woman’s face from the second photographic shoot.  Unfortunately it did not work as planned, because I tried to place the girl in the exact same position but as the desk was in the way someone was not able to stand there and peel the images off.  Thefore we had to move the girl so that this was possible.  The photographic shoot did not turn out as planned because the lighting was not very good and it did not look the way I had imagined.  It is useful however to experiment and recognise my mistakes for my final piece.