For my independent photo project I’m combining it with my AP Concentration.
In short, my concept is Editorial Dramatic Makeup, or makeup art. My inspiration comes from the multiple make up artists I see all over social media. The following instagram accounts deeply inspire the looks I decided to recreate: SNITCHERY, itslikelymakeup, ahitsrosa, _midnightradio, simplysethh, and divinamuse. I chose to use makeup because it’s something that I could easily manipulate and control for this assignment. It isn’t impossible to do, but yet still challenging. I’m able to find my own creativity within my photographic creativity— if that makes sense. I’d like to use several different models to portray the look of makeup of different races, genders, and anyone in general. Makeup alters the way anyone looks and I find it fascinating seeing the magic occur. Editorial makeup looks are far more interesting that just a simple smokey eye or cut crease. I borrowed a set of strobe lights to make sure I highlight the important part of the image, the face and the makeup. Barbara Kruger is a conceptual artist and collagist. A lot of her work revolves around political, feminist, moral, issues in society. Through her art, she expresses her point of view on these issues. Personally--since the past election--the topic concerning immigration and LGBT+ rights have spiked my attention more than usual. My first image is inspired by the very popular slogan of "we're here, we're queer" that many different LGBT+ awareness groups use. Not too long ago I did a project about bisexual visibility, and how to have their voice heard. I'm a very big advocate when it comes to equal rights and visibility when it comes to the community. But especially since the new president elect has come into office, many of us have fallen victim to his cruel discrimination. I want to comfort people and let them feel better about our country's current issues. We aren't alone and we cannot be silenced. I want people to see my work and feel motivated, not let down by society. Because I know it can get anyone down. Don't let yourself be the victim, be stronger. My second image is inspired by Shia LaBeouf's live stream during the Women's March on Washington. Being a child of 2 immigrants and part of a family that is full of them, it's hard to not get emotional towards our president's new executive orders. (and the wall...) I feel like these two images tie into what's going on in not only, politics but our world today.
The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. These questionnaires are regularly seen on the back page of Vanity Fair magazine, usually answered by artists and celebrities. Our assignment was to recreate that questionnaire and ask our fellow teachers around school the same questions.
Here is the link to the original questions! The Red Couch assignment was inspired by a German photographer named Horst Wackerbarth. He takes portraits of many different people with each subject photographed on or with some component of the couch--their background symbolizing their careers or life stories. In addition to the photographs he takes, he makes a video recording of them and asks them these "universal questions" that people don't always think about everyday. My assignment was to photograph in the style of Wackerbarth, and to find my Red Couch. I originally wanted to use real sunflowers, but I decided to stick to something that my subjects could wear around their necks. Most of the people worked at--and seemed to love--the places that I photographed them in. I met and spoke with many many kind hearts that really made my day.
After thinking about artists and whether they can be forces for change or only document change, we had to create 6 images that documented change. Catherine Opie photographed and studied the relationships between mainstream and infrequent society. Ai Wei Wei said that "art chose him", he tends to make art that is useless. We shared songs, poems, and spoken word about change, I included mine below.
What one considers to be "real" is relative to everyone. The concept of what is real--in my opinion--is intangible. In this assignment I attempt to show my versions of what I believe to be real in my world. To me, to be considered real I like to experience it with my own eyes. Something that is real to me may not be real to someone else, but that doesn't make it any less real.
I spent the most of my summer working or hanging out with Wesley and our families. I worked June through July at Burger Factory and the rest of August at Journeys Kidz for the Back-To-School season.
For this assignment we covered all the lights in the classroom and put up black lights. We got to paint with neon colors and attach various glow sticks on ourselves. This is one of my favorite assignments so far this year. I have never experimented with black lights so it was a fun experience. I set the camera up on a tripod because it was a long exposure. It was interesting to mess around with the camera settings in a way I haven't used before, this shoot taught me a lot.
Originally for this assignment I wanted to shoot images of my brother in the day of him. My mom's favorite comic is Calvin and Hobbes and I really was inspired to do something similar to that. But instead, Chloe came over and ended up playing with Nerf guns in my living room. If you all don't know my brother yet, his sense of humor is a bit too old for his actual age and he makes tons of faces.
Love is more of an abstract thing. Difficult to see, difficult to tell the difference between true and untrue love. To me, love is a choice and not so much a feeling. One chooses to accept the flaws and imperfections and to stay true to that other person. Whether it be a family or friend type of love, it is always something that is chosen. Family cannot be chosen, of course, but choosing to still love that person even for their lesser qualities is what love is. Love cannot be told it does not exist, only the people involved know when love is real. For this assignment, I created 3 images depicting the different kinds of love I deem as important. Each of these really hit home for me because they are so personal. I originally wanted to use family members for my photographs, but there were some issues. Self Love. One of the most important types of love among the rest. Discovering who you are and accepting yourself. You choose to learn not to compare yourself to others. This was something I have always struggled with since, sadly, elementary school. Self love is that type of love that you always have to try to maintain and work at. Best Friend Love. There is no one on the planet that could compare to your best friend. They are the truest person and closest to family you can ever have. My best friend. Annie, lives across the country and we still get closer everyday despite distance. Significant Other Love. Though it is cut off, I caught this specific look that almost all people look at their partner with. The look in their eyes is indescribable. True love is something that stretches and pushes beyond the boundaries of comfort.
Annie Leibovitz's Vanity Fair magazine shoot with Lady Gaga in 2014 inspired me for this assignment. Annie has a way of capturing an individual's "perfect" pose. She can find ways to flatter anyone with her photography. I chose this one because it seemed simple enough for me to accomplish, yet still focusing on her style. The inspired image had a mix of loop and rembrandt lighting, which I tried to achieve in some of my photos. In my opinion, the hardest part was telling the model how to pose. I can't imagine having to tell people I don't know very well to do something I want, especially if they're famous! It was extremely difficult to explain how I wanted their facial expression to be along with the placement of their hands or hair. Learning the different lighting techniques and how it changed the mood of the photo was my favorite. I'd like to attempt to explore more with Annie Leibovitz's various styles. For this assignment, I was inspired by a few people including photographer Richard Renaldi, filmmaker Tatia Pilieva and high school student Shea Glover. Each of them did a similar project with strangers, which I wanted to recreate to make more achievable for myself. Every one has their own set group to sit with at lunch and hang out with around school, but what happens when you take one kid from one group and one kid from another? This project was a lot of fun for not only myself, but for the ones who participated too. It's interesting to see how someone would go about hugging a complete stranger. Do you go all out? Do you give the awkward one-arm-side hug? Pose and smile for the camera?
Again, I was experimenting with the theme "surrealism" with these photos but instead in the style of Jerry Ueslmann. Although he did all his work in the dark room, I was able to recreate something that I think he would do. I layered different original images of mine and turned the opacity down to about 50-60% depending on where they were located on the picture. I changed the layer style to be either overlay or hard light. I felt like everything was still a bit too choppy so I added the Gaussian blur over each component. To get each component in, I used the quick selection tool, added a layer mask, then finished off with refine edge to clean it up before adding it into my final image.
For this assignment, I had to create an image in the style of Maggie Taylor. Her approach to photography is very different, surreal to be more specific. Surrealism is having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream. When she works with Photoshop she scans random objects and incorporates them in her images. For my photo, I got the opportunity to scan old vintage prints. These people have no story other than what was captured in the image. Other than Maggie Taylor as inspiration for this, artist Melanie Martinez was a great aid in the creation of this image.
I began by coloring in the children in the picture the same way I did for my Andy Warhol assignment. Then I took interesting aspects from old photos I had and used the quick selection tool > copy > paste into the children image and move tool to adjust it accordingly. This process required many layers. When I was younger I always had a fear of masks and the dark. Joshua Hoffine inspired my image of the stairs, I had always been extremely uncomfortable with stairs and monsters coming to get me underneath them. I wanted to recreate an image that looked as if it were taken right from a horror film. Using vignette to enhance the darkness, I made my images darker and more focused on the main point of the picture. The last image is a self portrait which seems to be quite unsettling to look at. For days on end to even months after months, I would have horrifying nightmares. The ones that always give me chills were the ones I looked into the mirror to find my face completely altered. I want people to relive not only their childhood fears but their nightmares and daymares while looking through these images.
For this assignment we had to create a self-portrait in the style of Andy Warhol. In class we had another classmate take a headshot, shoulders up, and against a plain background. It doesn't have to be serious, but it can be! In Photoshop CS5, I saved the picture as 8.5 x 11 inches so it could be printed in class. I included the YouTube tutorial I used below. The final image must have at least two differently colored images and no more than four.
Personally, I found this tutorial extremely helpful although he didn't include the part where you create the 4 tile with different hues. These were the steps I followed from this video: |