Jen Davis- Identity

Jen Davis is a Brooklyn based photographer. For the past eleven years she has been working

on a series of Self-Portrait’s dealing with issues regarding beauty, identity, and body image.

She has also been exploring men, as a subject and is interested in investigating the idea

of relationships, both physical and psychological, with the camera.

I really liked how honest her photos where and used them as inspiration when sending off my work to the University for the project Identity. I found her work was shocking and honestly raw and liked the lighting in the images as they are natural and striking.

Identity #2

Below I added my final images and The research I took out.  I wanted to include the pictures I decided not to use to see if it sparked any further inspiration:

I used a tripod that was aimed downwards and a some roses I bought to create these images. The rose is my favorite flower and I really like the images but I prefer the ones I used as my final images. 

Identity. ‘The fact of being who or what a person or things is’

I recently applied for a University and was given a project for my second level of applying. The theme was identity and we could interpret the work in anyway we wanted. I started looking at the word in different ways and complied a list of ideas I wanted to try and peruse. I also write up a report of my research and my thought process behind it all.

Here is the report I wrote: 

Identity. ‘The fact of being who or what a person or things is’. Is that it? Or is identity more? Do we perceive identity to be more than our genetic makeup? Or do we create our own identity based on our experiences and behavior? These questions have been a strong motivator for this project.

My main aim was to explore what I believe makes me who I am as I wanted to show my true self and contrast it against the different ways I show myself to others. From my knowledge the first photographer who came to mind was Bruno Metra. He uses his images to represent a microcosm which I think is very effective.

I discovered another photographer named Cindy Sherman who looks at identity in a different way. Her series of images is named ‘Self Portrait’. The images use realistic portraits to explore her different personalities. I really felt inspired by these images as opposed to showing different identities through various physical changes she reveals small details about herself a to g as a costume. The costume changes yet we stay the same deep down. These small costumes or identities show how complex our characters really are. I wanted to explore this in my images.
I started to research photographers and artists who explored identity and found Jen Davis on a website named LensCulture.  Her quite brutally honest images explore her true identity. I wanted to incorporate these ideas of my honest identity. Jen Davis’ images really allowed me to explore an honest approach to identity and have me the idea of the images I created. I started by taking portraits yet the way the images were looking I didn't feel like my true self as I had the ability to change my facial expression or edit in post production so I wanted something more honest. I started thinking about other parts of my body that showed my identity. I began thinking about my fingerprints and how they are individual and unique yet I still felt they didn't show my identity that other people around me can see. I then started shooting my hands and the way they tell a story about someone and how they represent me. I felt confident about this as I cannot edit my hands so they are a representation of me. I used my hands to morph random shapes and used the natural pattern of my hands to be in focus.
Alongside my hands I wanted to incorporate the idea of my separate identities. I used childhood toys, favorite objects and things that mean a lot to me. These objects not only show a part of me and my life but also show the various roles have. It shows how even if we feel we are honest with ourselves we know we have multiple identities deep down. I reflect back on the questions I began with and believe I truly explored my identity learning things about myself on the way.

Here are the images: 

Misplace ideas and emotions

Linking with my previous ideas of misplaced ideas and misplaced thoughts from the shoot I did I wanted the model to stand it quite simple positions which were helpful post production. This meant the shoot was quick and very easy. These images were then uploaded to Photoshop and I edited them to multiple the image and repeat itself. This gave the effect of a multiple shot and made the model appear three times. I then lowered the contrast, the brightness and made it lighter generally. This gives it almost a unrealistic effect and makes the audience look closer due to the faintness of the model.

I really like these images as they allow the audience to relate in some away. Sometimes you feel stressed and your own thoughts take over. This means you don't work as effectively and your work isn't as good as it can be. I feel these images express that feeling very well. It isn't an obvious expression of the emotions yet the audience can make of it what they want. 

I didn't really take inspiration anywhere from besides my own feelings showing how confident I am in improvising and creating images on the spot. If I was to re-shoot this I would maybe ask the model to change position to an almost screaming face to show a more deeper emotion yet this was nobody's fault besides my idea not being in my head at the time. 

Misplaced Narrative

I have had the feeling that my work is not taking the right route I wanted as I am not as inspired as I have been previously. I took some images on a shoot and when I looked at the results I was not pleased. I started editing these in relation to some artwork I found. This image really helped me find inspiration again as I never thought of artwork having such an impact on me yet the image is hardly there. Here is my inspired images:

I believe the image tells me a lot about the person within the shot yet the person isn't visible. This lets the audience explore the image for themselves and decided on a story individually. Using the effect of chopping the person out of the frame allows the audience to image a different story every time. This allows the audience to explore a different narrative either multiple per person or varied by person to person. This explored the simplistically shaped image.  Even though this image is simple I really like the effect it has on the model and the audience. 

Christopher Scott Richey

Photography Series, mixed with Collage and Found Objects

Christopher Scott Richey

I found these images really suited the style of where my images are going. I am looking towards scanning in my images and playing around with the narrative of an image. In doing so I want the audience to re-create a narrative for themselves and let them decided what they want it to mean. This can allow the audience to choose what they believe it to mean.
I like the images as the added smaller images have some small link yet. I want to create these images with my own smaller images to create a different narrative.

Here are some of his images that I really liked: